Laughing and Turning Away by Patrick Holloway

Laughing and Turning Away by Patrick Holloway

The first time I had a gun pointed at me I was 14 and I ran home crying, and my brother laughed at me, calling me burra, saying I’d better get used to it. I didn’t know if he meant getting used to seeing guns or getting used to being stupid.

The Anatomy of Todd Melkin by Catherine Malcynsky

The Anatomy of Todd Melkin by Catherine Malcynsky

After seeing an episode of Law & Order in which a mother murdered her infant child by forcing it to swallow a kitchen sponge, forty-one-year-old Todd Melkin was even more convinced that he had a tumor in his brain. 

A Working Theory of Stellar Collapse by Sam Miller Khaikin

Mwela has a lot of theories. He tells you about them each night after dinner, after the fish fryers have cooled and the last of the ugali is scraped from the tabletops...

A Wave Breaking by Phoebe Driscoll

Aiden weighed 104 pounds and the gap between his front teeth seemed to widen every time he checked with his tongue. He had a place that belonged to him in a private and warm way: Byhalia, Mississippi.

Safe, Somewhere by Baird Harper

Safe, Somewhere by Baird Harper

Legend had it, if you left your truck running in the alley behind the Thunderbird Motel, laid a ten-dollar bill on the front desk, and asked the clerk for a cherry donut, a woman would appear and take you to her room.

Martha and Other Anomalies by Kerrin Piché Serna

Martha and Other Anomalies by Kerrin Piché Serna

The pineapple was flying! It paused at the pinnacle of its arc, weightless, and then began its descent—slow, sinking, faster, faster—finally landing with a thump into the tall grass beside the road.