Monsters, Mystery, & Mayhem Contest Longlist
These 39 stories thrilled us with their specific and creepy details, their attention to character, and their surprises in plot…
Windows
We wait until the soft explosions above deaden to absolute silence—not the kind of silence that listens but the kind…
The Day Never Happened
I did not combine melted butter and eggs in the medium mixing bowl or beat the mixture with the hand…
Orca Girl
wears a killer whale’s tooth like a toe tag and populates every available margin with sketches of the sea Oreos.…
Bone on Bone
My son starts grinding his teeth in the Fall of 3rd grade. As he sleeps. The scraping, the pressure –…
Play Money
At eight I was rich and powerful, controlled railroads and electric companies. A banker, I embezzled rainbows of cash that…
The Extinction Museum: Exhibit # 914 (tank of anoxic water from Gulf of Mexico near the mouth of the Mississippi River)
The bloom of your skin as the river thickens around us. Constellations of algae exhale. We eat the fish that…
On Sewing and the Anatomy of Lips
On Sewing and the Anatomy of Lips Cupid’s bow: The contour line of the upper vermilion. I am drawn tight,…
Cow Town Carnival
Mom was pushing 80 past a semi on the wrong side of Madison, and it was one of them numbers…
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