We made some hard choices to create this shortlist for the Gods and Monsters Challenge! Congratulations to these writers! We'll choose a winner by next week! Shortlist: It's a Monster, Baby Return Barnacle Moon Tokoloshe From Clay, God China Plate What the Bones...
publications
Fractured Lit Ghost, Fable, and Fairy Tales Prize Judged by Dan Chaon Shortlist
Check out the titles of these 20 stories! Congrats to all of our short-listed writers! Your story stood out to our readers and editors, and we're excited to send it to Judge Dan Chaon! Shortlist: Closed for the Season The Walker at Night Wolfie Bakunawa and the Seven...
Jigsaw
My sister Jane and I make the ideal jigsaw puzzle partnership. She’s more organized than me, the one who categorizes and compartmentalizes, but I have all the patience. Most recently, we tried a 1,000-piece train travel scene. She dutifully separated the pieces into...
Wife 2.0
“Do you want a bite, Linda?” you call out cheerfully from the living room. You’re settled into your recliner, hunched gleefully over a cinnamon roll. I pause, grip the broom hovering over a pile of debris in the middle of our tiny kitchen floor. I wanted to playfully...
We’ll Finally Go to Switzerland
he says, as soon as this is over. She lists the names of towns she’s always wanted to see, foreign and sticky on her tongue, Lauterbrunnen, Lucerne, Zermatt, as they sit abreast at the infusion center in Tucson, the thick heat of July pressing on the glass, the long...
Ghost, Fable, and Fairy Tales Prize Judged by Dan Chaon Longlist
Congrats to all of our long-listed writers! Your story stood out to our readers and editors, and we're excited to continue reading to find the perfect shortlist to send to Judge Dan Chaon! Longlist: Temptation a white horse runs without its rider The Bureau of Exiled...
Fractured Lit Ghost, Fable, and Fairy Tales Prize Judged by Dan Chaon Longlist
Congrats to all of our long-listed writers! Your story stood out to our readers and editors, and we're excited to continue reading to find the perfect shortlist to send to Judge Dan Chaon! Longlist: Temptation a white horse runs without its rider The Bureau of Exiled...
housekeeping
Call your mother at 3 am, and when she asks why you are awake so late, tell her you recently learned that drain flies are fuzzier than fruit flies, even though both have made a home out of your sink. It’s important to keep people on their toes, so follow up this fun...
Anthology 5 Winners and Shortlist
Judge Tara Isabel Zambrano has done the difficult task of choosing the twenty winners for this year's anthology! We're so excited to publish these twenty stories on our website and then in print! We also want to congratulate the shortlisted writers who trusted us with...
What To Do If Someone Tries To Tell You Bad News
Perhaps you will find yourself in this situation, returning late at night to a university campus, deserted for the summer. This is where all of you visiting chemists are bunking during your one-week Biomolecular conference. You left both your wallet and cell phone in...
Coyote, Bones, Howl
CoyoteThe house slept while I stayed up stretching, trying to fit my body into this world, knowingsomething ancient lives inside me and needs to ease into sleep. It worms its way through mybloodstream. A howl, released with a stretch to hide its strangeness. It is all...
A Perfect Pair
My husband has this idea to marry a laundromat and a bowling alley. “A perfect pair,” he says. “Like us.” He’s an idiot. Who’d want that? “Think about it. Now they wait for free, but we could clean up.” I roll my eyes. “Maybe some video games or an air hockey table...












