These days, when I pull up the old photographs, most people still attribute the resemblance between Lydia Lissing and me to the uniforms. My husband, who has always refused to see it, has never gotten past this first reluctance. “You all look like...
We're proud to announce the 22 titles of our shortlist! The submissions we received were fresh, fierce, and so engaging that we've had a hard time narrowing down the list! From this list, judge Megan Giddings will choose her final 3 winners! Please don't identify your...
The Stuntman Cuts through the water like shears through velvet. Like an arrow through the apple on a little boy’s head. Like any number of sharp things through lovely, yielding softness. The suit and mask hide his tan leanness, his dark curling hair. The webbing on...
waiting to cross. My heart tick, ticking like a stupid clock. Eddie and his dark hair forest, his blue eye ocean. Eddie, who is only 15. But to me, he is a man. In five years, I will catch up. By then, I will be beautiful. My hair will be a riverflow. Eddie...
Because Davie Gray is protected by the blood of Jesus and his scripture-spouting pastor daddy, he stays in the classroom practicing his times tables while the rest of the class waits outside the gymnasium, sleeves rolled, for the stern-faced nurses to swab and stab us...
What are your favorite things to write about? Those topics or items you can’t stop thinking about! “Favorite” implies that I have a choice about the content of my fiction, and frankly, I don’t believe that I do. I read an interview with George Saunders where Saunders...
It was a bright, gray day with no breeze, and she had just finished digging a grave. She’d woken that morning and her turtle had not. How should she feel on this first day without Tulip? Or on all the days without Tulip to come? Sad, probably. But sometimes being with...
We're proud to announce the 56 titles of our longlist! The submissions we received were fresh, fierce, and so engaging that we've had a hard time narrowing down the list! From this list, 25 stories will make it to the shortlist for judge Megan Giddings to choose her...
In the footnote: He read Basketball diaries, but he was Latino and he did not wear a shirt titled, Latinidad, or at least not out in the daylight, or it was that his shirt titled Latinidad was too tight to fit into. He could finger roll like Ewing. He could fake to...
Bette was stirring her coffee when she saw the postcard, tucked between a large print arthritis monthly and debt consolidation offers. On the front was a rose window. She turned it over, expecting to learn that Jesus loved her, or God would smite her. Finally taking a...
Maggie has clouds for eyes. Also, she barely talks. Other kids have asked her how those clouds got stuck there, but she just blinks back, clouds churning. My best friend, Bernice Wallers, heard Maggie used to have eyes like ours, that fire ants devoured them while she...
Legacy My ancestors were star smugglers. Becoming a mule was their only way out of the darkness. They would hide the stars in their bellies and wear thick clothes to conceal their glowing midriffs. Every night, I thank them. For the sacrifice they made. For what they...