We’re excited to honor these stories by including them on our shortlist for this contest. Congrats to the writers who have made it this far in the contest! Your piece has been handed over to our Guest Judge, Maurice Carlos Ruffin!
Thinking about how she flung a softball right into my dad’s eye. How with her he was like helluva pitch, girl. How he said she could split the light with her fastball. How he said man, it’s too bad you can’t play real baseball with an arm like that, too bad softball is a man’s…
Content Warning: Miscarriage, abortion Following the meeting with the doctor, there was no thought of a baby shower. Too much rage. Too much grief. The two were indistinguishable, separate ropes twisted into a single noose. Bullshit about stages of grief, the mother thought; it was everything all at once. Including this: she was nonstop clammy…
Where I Come From . . .
the house had jasmine bushes that scented the backyard, veiling the odors from our rubbish bins. It’s where my sisters screeched with laughter every time I read the lines “Sing Mother Sing, Can Mother Sing, Mother Can Sing,” from The Radiant Reader because our Ma had the voice of a man, where, when Ma answered…
Whirlwing Daughter
eggrolls should be rolled tight. they taste better that way & men like them like that too but Ntxawm is thinking about girls & one time one asked to hold hands during a school field trip. & one time at school is asked about what or who she masturbates to & at home is asked…
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