Next to me at the intersection stands a young boy, hands in jacket pockets, hair the brown of thebrittle leaves in the street gutter. Autumn. The anniversary of my younger sister’s accidentaldeath, by drowning—a riptide, no flotation device. I was nearby. The boy at the intersection andI wait for the stoplight, and for a moment…
Mother Black Bear sits on her haunches under the heavy limbs of the crabapple tree in the backyard. She rubs her eyes, her long snout, and looks up at the stars and sighs as if she, too, has been awakened by the clock tick, tick, ticking. Through an open window we talk woman to woman—where…
A man with rusty brown hair, a beard, and a plaid shirt has been struggling with something in his mind, so he gets in his truck and drives fast until he gets to the top of a hill and guns it. He’s going all out, and where the cliff juts out over the water, he…
Blessed
The priest still has a mouth full of cake, crumbs stuck to his lips, when the mom presents a doll with clumps of hair missing, a book with crayon scribbled across the cover, a blanket still warm from the girl’s grip and says, “Bless them?” The girl cries for her stolen blankie, but the mom…
Fractured Lit 2024 Elsewhere Prize Judged by Tara Campbell Longlist
Congratulations to the writers of these 39 speculative stories! We’ll be back shortly with our shortlist! We can’t wait to see what Judge Tara Campbell chooses from the upcoming shortlist!
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