MARGARET The basil has bolted. Margaret comes most mornings, around ten. She has been coming four years, give or take; I’d round down. I know her by the wing. One feather sticks out at the angle of a cracked finger; the others are flat. I know her best by the place above her foot where… Read More Margaret ~ fiction by Kellan Jansen

233 MILLION YEARS AGO. It is raining. It was raining yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. In fact, it has been raining for almost one million years, and it will rain for one million more, making this the halfway point. (This is historically accurate: It really did rain for two… Read More Carnian Pluvial Episode ~ fiction by Maia Gerlinger

The Indiana Weather Service has issued a TORNADO WARNING for Vermillion County on April 19, 1996, at 6:40 p.m. Take SHELTER IMMEDIATELY in the basement that has a pile of insulation melting, like filthy cotton candy, into a pool of stagnant water on the floor. In the basement’s only dry corner, you’ll find the EMERGENCY… Read More Emergency Alert ~ fiction by Emily Hall

Because the late August sky cloaks me in a cool flavor of blue. Because these streets are blissfully barren, only a mother towing her children to Target for back-to-school bargains, a scattering of returning weekenders trudging toward Trader Joe’s to restock. Because in the library on the next corner a stack of best sellers pinpoints… Read More Perfect Day, Downtown Brooklyn ~ fiction by Catherine Chiarella Domonkos

I love when this happens. Guest judge Diane Seuss has chosen one of our nominees for the 2026 edition of the Best Microfictions anthology: congrats to Jeffrey Hermann for his exquisite short, “Unimaginable Powers.” Pop over and read it right now. It’ll take less than a minute. It’s a prose poem in a neat little… Read More Another Best Microfictions Win!

I woke mid-emergency, no sirens, just consequences. Twelve hours of accidental sleep after two days awake is not rest, it’s an ambush. My mouth tasted like I’d been chewing batteries. My body registered gravity as a personal insult. The room was full of aftermath. I checked my phone and understood too much at once. Pia’s… Read More Said and Done ~ fiction by Jonathan Daniel Gardner

We’re storming to Zouk. We’re getting drunk tonight! we shout, drowning out the Jacky Cheung schmaltz murmuring from the taxi’s radio. We wind down the windows, stick our heads out, smirk back as the driver glares in the mirror. It’s a no-holds-barred night, exactly what we deserve after living in the trenches of our office… Read More It’s Not a Pyrrhic Victory If We’re Paid Shitloads of Money ~ fiction by Ya Lan Chang

Palahniuk ekphrasis Fade in. I look up and she is sliding over to me from the other side of a chessboard, her big bong-bong hips swinging from one side to the next, her cat-eyes gleaming. Well, well, those eyes whisper, a pretty little mouse-pet. Come to mama. Cue Hello Operator by the White Stripes. See,… Read More Palahniuk ekphrasis ~ fiction by Natasha Mihell

When It Seems Like Nothing Is Happening a Lot Is Happening I’m planning a big party. My friend has no idea. She hates her job and cries on the weekends about it. We tell her she can do better. We tell each other lies all the time. The party will be drinks and dinner. When… Read More Three Micros ~ fiction by Jeffrey Hermann

Draft 1 08/18/25, 7:45 PM I like to be the boss of everything in my life. Ever since I was a child, I had to raise seven siblings on my own. My parents were always working, gone more than home. Naturally,  I became the responsible one: the fixer, the planner. When I’m in charge, everything… Read More Without a Checklist ~ fiction by Christopher Grady

“Having Weight” is a modular story that mirrors the narrator’s fractured state of mind, prompting the reader to collaborate in constructing meaning from the apparent chaos. Each time the reader visits the page or clicks “Shuffle,” the narrative reorders itself, resisting a straight plot in favor of emotional constellations. The print button generates different “permanent”… Read More Having Weight ~ fiction by Cate McGowan

When Amanda Corin arrived at Mommy & Me Yoga, everyone could see that her new baby had turned into a glass of wine. Her friends felt bad. Their baby shower gifts—booties that looked like tacos, wool diaper covers from women-owned New Zealand farms, a onesie with Leonard Peltier’s face—all of them were useless now. As… Read More A Deficit of Attention ~ fiction by Sage Tyrtle

I crept past the sunlight on the hay, hiding from the light so as not to appear present at all to my father’s men, who were pitching the golden strands into piles. I had been at it for an hour, trying to inch my way to Becker, who was sitting in the barn loft, stricken… Read More What have they done to the horses? ~ fiction by Chrissy Stegman

The turbaned, red-lipped and broad-shouldered apparition announces she’s heard my pleas. My daughter, Delilah, the snarky adolescent that she is, had bought me a Joan Crawford prayer candle as a gag gift for Mother’s Day. Now, I see she must have moved it to where it’s currently sitting— on my alter. “I am delighted you… Read More Saint Joan ~ fiction by Angela James

His username is among the list of players when I log on the server, with a blue tick at the end. His avatar is gliding across the pixel-terrain, hovering over other users’ multicolored cursors. I don’t intend to play this game again. Not with him. Our broken bodies, battling each other online and off for… Read More Abandonware ~ fiction by Sarp Sozdinler

No one knows what it was like, how very dark it was in 1815. The nights were enormous; you couldn’t believe they would ever end. After sunset, there was so little to do that, for amusement, I would linger outside by the stables, testing my bravery, but dusk had way of cowing me: the night… Read More On Seeing Byron ~ fiction by Amber Burke

A night with Fun Guy always delivers. After back-to-back shifts at the pulp mill you need a release. And who better to spend it with than Fun Guy? Fun Guy brings the drinks. Fun Guy knows where the music is playing, how to score tickets. Fun Guy high-fives everyone at the bar and introduces you.… Read More Fun Guy ~ fiction by Claire Fantus

He speaks to the penis to cajole and comfort, to sometimes instruct, to above all else socialize and introduce the penis to a world populated by others. To remind the penis of the broader community outside their townhome and of the warmth and timbre of his voice. “Let me know if it’s too hot,” he… Read More How to Be Happy for Two ~ fiction by Max Paradise

Case Number: AT 04/05/01 3072 Incident: Foiled hiatus breaker attempt Reporting Officer: Ibrahim Badran, Police Constable Date of Report: 10/2/2020 At about 12:10 on February 10, 2019, I met with Mr. Djinn at Al Majdool Road regarding a foiled hiatus breaker attempt. Mr. Djinn said that he was a suspended djinn. He stated he was… Read More Case Number: AT 04/05/01 3072 ~ fiction by Roopa Raveendra

You, the consummate gentleman, bring me a paper plate of Little Caesars pepperoni and mushroom, my favorite. It gets me moist when you remember this intimate factoid.  I ask, since it’s only us, should we light some candles? You squirm, shake your head, say, “It’s pizza.” Whatever. All I found in the Youth Group’s pantry… Read More Two Excellent People Burning ~ fiction by Travis Flatt

Spa Day My lips are creased with smoking indents. A patchwork valentine shape. “They’re beautiful,” the aesthetician notes, “but you’re too young for static wrinkles.” Active wrinkles, she explains, are accepted at thirty. “We weren’t built to be impassive,” she winks. We cry at birth. That’s where they come in. Snails. Toffee colored, completely selfless.… Read More Three Hybrids ~ fiction by Emma Raimondo

Let us assume that Stuart finds himself somewhere roughly ten thousand feet up, eyelids and Abercrombie blazer fluttering in the wind whistling past him as he plunges toward the copper-colored land below, the sting of ice crystals in his nostrils. How he got there is of no importance. (Though it does cross Stuart’s mind that… Read More The Velocity of Remedial Math ~ fiction by Elizabeth Rosen

At the cove, my father explained holothurians to me: the sea cucumber. He had been quiet all day, but he was excited now that he had seen one on a rock just under the surface. We looked down into the clear water at the holothurian. It had dots on its cylindrical body like eyes on a… Read More Holothurian ~ fiction by Addison Zeller

This movie will open with a drone shot that swoops over a dappled body of water towards a glittering urban skyline. Or with its central character facing the camera, answering questions from an unseen interrogator. Or with a traumatic confrontation that will later prove to be a flashback. This movie will explore a flawed but lovable protagonist prone… Read More This Movie ~ fiction by Carolyn R. Russell

Sitting on lawn chairs at the edge of the world we eat sandwiches and watch ancient monsoons rip harmlessly across space, tantrums in exile. I sip cold milk. You swig from a flask, screw the cap closed counterclockwise, how they do things in this hemisphere. You point to the birth of two baby seagulls in… Read More Sound of a Train From A Previous Life ~ fiction by Guy Biederman

The ringmaster holds my right hand as we stroll. A clown galumphs on my left. We parade down the hospital corridor following the double, yellow-taped lines to operating theater three. No urgency today. No gurney or wheelchair either. Because, they tell me, this is a standard outpatient procedure. The questionnaire asked: Have you ever breastfed?… Read More And Now You Will Need a Very Sharp Knife ~ fiction by Catherine Chiarella Domonkos

Claudio reties his apron as he waits for the barbarian to order. When the beast flips a hankie out from under a flap in his leather kilt, he catches the glint of a sword tucked up against the man’s massive girth. “Venti, triple shot, half caff macchiato, extra caramel with whip,” the barbarian says and… Read More Starbucks on the Corner of Appian Way and the Forum, 476 A.D. ~ fiction by Virginia Nelson

No one knows when the baby crawled back to the door and started putting footwear in his mouth again. He’s teething, someone said, they have an urge to do that. A girl ran to inform the mother, who came rushing, stop, she said, I’ve said before, stop. The baby cried, thick tears in his round,… Read More Chewing Slippers ~ fiction by Tara Isabel Zambrano

Follow Ros to the party house, where colored lights churn from the windows into the night sky like a collapsing star. Let her grab your hand, weave you through swaying crowds into a room containing every other person on earth, living, dead, or otherwise. Dance with ghosts. Watch Ros dance. While you dance, close your… Read More Afterparty ~ fiction by Chelsea Bouchard

Safety Bucket Days after the latest headline, the school supplied each room with a safety bucket. Ms. Stevens removed each item one-by-one in front of the reverent class. There was a length of paracord to tie off the door and make a second lock if the first didn’t hold or a window was smashed to… Read More Safety Bucket ~ fiction by Aaron Sandberg

Octavia’s future arrives in a box small enough to fit in her coat pocket. She removes the plastic wrap, careful to tug the scared furball out of its package without getting scratched. Warming the tiny creature in the palm of her hand, she whispers “you’re home” as instructed by the Owner’s Manual. At the sound… Read More Buyer Beware ~ fiction by Phebe Jewell

Rub your eye stye all over his face towels. Drool on his pillows. Dream of wrapping his head in cellophane. Lower sunglasses on your aquiline nose and stare with disdain at his beach potbelly. Tsk out loud. Offer no praise. Stay unadorned and scratchy. Leave your unpainted nails (toe and finger) raggy and unfiled. Lick… Read More Gracious Departure ~ fiction by Nancy Ford Dugan

In the third month of our relationship, we attend a Bonnard exhibition. There is a feeling that the exhibition might go on forever; one room of artwork endlessly spilling into another. I have a thought that our relationship could be like that, with no sense of an ending, just a series of experiences tumbling into… Read More You Never Know Which Artwork Will Stay with You, Becoming Entirely Beloved, Entirely Necessary ~ fiction by Sumitra Singam

She stares across the desk at me in a way that makes me feel naked. I button my cardigan right up to the top. “Look,” she says, “It’s either this or the call centre. You’ll be sanctioned if you turn down a job that’s offered to you.” I shiver, despite the buttoned-up cardi. I worked… Read More It’s Either This Or The Call Centre ~ fiction by Alison Wassell

What’s your child’s name? What grade is she in? What’s her daily routine? Does she brush her teeth every morning? Does she cry every night? What school does she go to?  How are her grades? Have you observed behavioral changes? Does she startle at small noises? Flinch when classmates raise hands? Drop her books at… Read More Questions The Caseworker Should Have Asked After My Ex Accused Me of Neglect ~ fiction by Barbara Diggs

The flat is a box of green light. Leaves and stems and tendrils tumble from the ceiling, snake along surfaces, shoot up from the floor. In the corner of the room a glass cabinet hums softly, glows with a dim white light. The surfaces are jewelled with beads of condensation and furred with moss. Carnivorous… Read More A Lifetime’s Collection of Indoor Plants ~ fiction by Karen Arnold

Henry David is thinking about Mrs. Emerson and playing with himself as he surveys his beans. He wants to sojourn into and out of and into and out of Lidian in an act of carnal transcendence but he has beans to tend, ants to watch, an image to maintain. The Dial is expecting another travelogue… Read More Its Meanness to the World ~ fiction by Jon Doughboy

Simona is a mountain. She is tall. She speaks with an accent. Where are you from, Simona? I am the daughter of continental plates. My parents argued when I was born. I fled the desert to go to school. The children laugh. There’s distant thunder. Simona writes an essay. What do you want, Simona? I… Read More Lesson One: Simona ~ fiction by Kati Bumbera

Standing, Sylvie is ten feet tall, but the photographer wants her seated on her front step, back pressed into the lintel of the doorframe. Sylvie’s limbs are taut as the handles of an overused carrier bag, and creak like trees in a storm. “Does it hurt when your muscles lengthen, when your bones elongate?” the… Read More Like Trees in a Storm ~ fiction by Anika Carpenter

Day 1: I’ve been secretly studying my neighbors, especially the elderly couple across the street. According to middle class standards, the couple lives in squalor. Their ranch-style home is overgrown with wild grass and weeds. The Salvadoran kiddos next door sneak over and hunt on their lawn for snakes and cats to keep as pets.… Read More I Will Try Harder Tomorrow ~ fiction by Thomas Van Street