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Composition by Sharon Gusky

April 16, 2025

Barbie and Ken aren’t together much these days. Ken is often with another doll he has met. Barbie knows this, too. You could not say that “the other” is taller, or slimmer, or more beautiful than Barbie. Barbie and her look alike, except for their hair color.

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In Fiction Tags Composition, Sharon Gusky, Fiction, 2025 Spring

Ribs by Miles Parnegg

April 16, 2025

They pass the Styrofoam cups of potato salad laced with dill, and sometimes go for the banana pudding shingled with vanilla wafers. That is the point, the sharing. They’ve grown tired of individuating, making protective decisions, catering to specific tastes.

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In Fiction Tags Fiction, Miles Parnegg, Ribs, 2025 Spring

Bodies Leashed, Bodies Glanced, Bodies Freed, Bodies Danced by Joe Baumann

April 16, 2025

His mother’s doppelganger reached the water first. She did not break her stride. There was no fanfare, no grandiose gesture at the miracle of it all. She simply kept walking, her gait keeping its same rhythm as her feet set onto the shifting, slurping water as it rolled in and out.

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In Fiction Tags fiction, Joe Baumann, Bodies Leashed, Bodies Glanced, Bodies Freed, Bodies Danced, lgbt, 2025 Spring

Heat Wave by Madeline Furlong

February 5, 2025

I could have gone to a bar; I could have skated down to the water and lit up and watched the lake waves. I could have rented a car and driven up to Caroline’s mother’s, banged on the door, refused to leave until Caroline came out. But soon I was standing in front of Cinema 17. The marquee listed one more showing.

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In Fiction Tags fiction, Madeline Furlong, Heat Wave, 2025 February, Fiction, 2025 Winter

A Hospitable Man by Theodora Ziolkowski

December 11, 2024

The kind of man Cathy imagined would pursue an eleven-year-old should be tall and fit. He ought to wear fitted washed jeans, his button-up sleeves rolled loosely. His fingers should be stacked with rings, and a tattoo should climb the side of his neck, his forearm or bicep. But the man who’d sought out Cathy was short and stocky. His pasty skin had a sheen that made it look extra malleable, like putty.

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In Fiction Tags fiction, Theodora Ziolkowski, A Hospitable Man, 2024 December, Fiction

Notes on an Apology by Scott Ditzler

November 7, 2024

I told myself it wasn’t my responsibility.  I told myself it wasn’t my fault, and grabbed my flannel off the back of the chair, the bag of scripts off the sink.  I found my jeans at the foot of the bed, my shoes, my cigarettes, and I walked out into the cold. 

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In Fiction Tags Fiction, Scott Ditzler, Notes on an Apology, 2024 November

Requesting A Transfer To A New Family Group by Heather Bartos

October 8, 2024

"Once it's official, start packing. Submit two copies of your letter of resignation. One goes to your parents, for their records."

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In Fiction Tags Heather Bartos, Requesting A Transfer To A New Family Group, Fiction, 2024 November

Dreamlover by Ciara Alfaro

October 2, 2024

The last story Milena gave me was unlike all the rest. In it, a girl stood trapped on the strip of land between a lagoon and the sea, the sky black overhead, the cranes out to get her.

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In Fiction Tags Ciara Alfaro, Dreamlover, 2024 October, Fiction, LGBTQ

The Food Taster by Matt Leibel

May 4, 2024

The food taster is fulfilled in her job in a way she knows most others are not. Something about this makes her uneasy. Something about this makes her ravenous for more.

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In Fiction Tags 2024 May, Fiction, Matt Leibel, The Food Taster

Crime Scene By J.R. Chapple

May 4, 2024

She’d been so good at laying still. Good at being frightened. During one of her early jobs, a gig where she’d started off alive, breathing long enough to be assaulted, the man had been so careful, making an effort to talk to her between takes

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In Fiction Tags fiction, 2024 May, J.R. Chapple, Crime Scene

The Scorpion by Leila Khaleghi

March 20, 2024

“Hello, old friend,” she whispered into the void. The fullness inside her swelled. She never imagined that she would have welcomed his well-armored companionship. But how different he seemed this time, a herald of harmony rather than hostility. A true friend. Oh, how good it was to see him.

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In Fiction Tags Leila Khaleghi, The Scorpion, Fiction, 2024 March

LGM-1 by Robert Paul Weston

March 20, 2024

From my window, I watched the pool’s plastic pit return to its former glory. Only when the refurbishment was complete, the pool refilled and made usable, did I discover Cathy existed, that the dull-but-probably-well-to-do couple next door had a daughter the same age as Gretchen Lowe.

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In Fiction Tags fiction, Robert Paul Weston, LGM-1, 2024 April

Minor Lightning by Victoria Barrett

February 16, 2024

We walk straight toward the things we want or need or have to reach, leaving a wake of our longing in the bare dirt behind us. We roll our eyes at the olds’ advice to slow down, to “savor,” such corny bullshit, we’ll slow down, maybe, when we arrive.

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In Fiction Tags Victoria Barrett, Minor Lightning, 2024 February, fiction

The Antipodal Point of Fear by David H Weinberger

January 17, 2024

After discovering antipodal points and remembering Australia, I immediately started digging. It made no sense to believe that I could dig through the core of the earth but it didn’t make any sense to live the way me and my family, my neighbors, were living: threatened and afraid all the time.

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In Fiction Tags David H Weinberger, The Antipodal Point of Fear, 2024 January, Fiction

MISCELLANEOUS GRIEVANCES by Ji Hyun Joo

January 13, 2024

My doppelgänger smells like wet fur and Old Spice. Even when we’re sitting in the dry air conditioning of my Jeep Cherokee, the scent — heavy with notes of yeast and nutmeg — is overpowering.

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In Fiction Tags Ji Hyun Joo, MISCELLANEOUS GRIEVANCES, 2024 January, Fiction, BIPOC

Moms by Marguerite Alley

December 12, 2023

A few times, he reached for her breast, but the moment his fingers collided with the skin of her chest she involuntarily felt herself disengage in surprise, as though shocked that this should be a place his hand might be inclined to rest, to explore

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In Fiction Tags Marguerite Alley, Moms, Fiction, 2023 December

Henrietta by Dan Shields

December 6, 2023

Scuttling toward me with the fat pink knuckles of her claws, assembled inside the shell I’d just thrown. Her body at home in the ugliness I’d created. She was my best friend instantly. I named her Henrietta.

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In Fiction Tags Dan Shields, Henrietta, 2023 December, fiction

Horses by Walter Weinschenk

November 1, 2023

"We run as one, staunch, impassive, each of us different, all the same: bay, roan, pinto, palomino, as many types as there are dreams imaginable but we rush as one array, jet-like above the gravely ground at horse-speed, a single panoply that thrusts forth in perpetual motion and straight pursuit, headlong into pitiless wind"

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In Fiction Tags Walter Weinschenk, Horses, 2023 November, fiction

Aquifer by Sean Theodore Stewart

November 1, 2023

"When I spoke, I surprised myself by saying things I had been too bashful to admit to the aquifer before. I gushed. I waited for her response. The water enveloped me."

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In Fiction Tags Sean Theodore Stuart, Aquifer, 2023 November, fiction

HOW WAS SALLY ON THE NIGHT OF THE BREAKING? by Abigail Chang

October 11, 2023

Sally’s dresses were too big, they swallowed us, gobbled us up, we tied the cords too tight and they left these great, swooping Xs across our bodies. The day was drawn, frigid, there were goosebumps running across our arms. But Sally wasn’t there and couldn’t say anything. Sally was dead.

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In Fiction Tags Abigail Chang, HOW WAS SALLY ON THE NIGHT OF THE BREAKING, 2023 October, Fiction, BIPOC
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