Ghoti: Two-Story Bars
by Valerie Lynn Watson
Valerie Lynn Watson’s “Two-Story Bars” has the potential to become a great story, but ultimately surfaces as a romantic retrospective that doesn’t quite scratch the surface of what it intends to become.
The story concerns itself with a young woman reflecting on a semester in London a decade ago. Happily married, [...]

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Discussion on Harold Brodkey’s short story Spring Fugue
Jeffrey Eugenides reads Harold Brodkey’s short story Spring Fugue and discusses it with The New Yorker’s fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. Listen to the mp3 on the player above.
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The New Yorker: Awake
by Tobias Wolff
I was highly impressed with Awake by Tobias Wolff all the way through the read. It catches you initially by reminding you of the days when you too had to struggle through the Odyssey. The fumbling while reading through chapters and the flash when the light bulb finally goes [...]

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Mississippi Review: Ski-Doo
by Pia Z. Ehrhardt
Pia Z. Ehrhardt’s short story Ski-Doo leaves much to be desired. How often does a father marry and bear children with his daughter’s best friend and no one has a problem with that?
Don’t get me wrong the story is interesting mid-way through, but from the beginning it seems a bit [...]

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The New Yorker: The Dinner Party
by Joshua Ferris
“I can predict everything that will happen from the moment they arrive to the little kiss on the cheek goodbye and I just can’t goddam do it.”
We’ve all been here before. The Dinner Party by Joshua Ferris summarizes these awkward and well, boring moments we all endure for [...]

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Anotherealm: Zombie Meth
by Adrienne Ray
“Zombie Meth” raises some difficult questions for me as a reader and as someone who loves literature. Maybe that’s why I like it. It’s provocative in that it compels me to question my assumptions about writing and literature. Adrienne Ray’s “Zombie Meth” is not what I’d call literary fiction. It’s speculative, [...]

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Ghoti: Carnivorous
by Don Hucks
After pouring through thousands of pages of conventional, reasonably-sensible literature, sometimes it can be satisfying to find a piece so artfully ambiguous that it borders on incomprehensibility.
Don Hucks’ “Carnivorous” is an intense tale which centers on a lengthy, emotionally-troubled narrative excitedly spiraling to oblivion.
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anderbo: Night
by Jessica Pishko
It’s interesting how much pain can be packed into a human being. We’re dynamic creatures, if only insofar as we can suffer. We can suffer terrible pains and humiliations without even showing it. Youth can hide that pain. A smile can hide that pain. Numbers—just the fact that there are so many [...]

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Ghoti: Why I Didn’t Marry My Fiancee
By Shaul Hendel
If you’re looking to add some spice to your erotic sensibilities before summer, Shaun Hendel’s “Why I Didn’t Marry My Fiancée” may be the tale to get your juices flowing.
It’s a sexy, seductive story chronicling the abrupt dissolution of a racy courtship. The male and female parties, [...]

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The Mississippi Review: Public Display of Affection
by Laura Levin
Laura Levin’s “Public Display of Affection” examines change. More specifically, Levin looks at the changes we don’t notice, the little subtleties that we miss in the motion of days upon days. Perhaps more than anything, this story reveals that intimacy isn’t a state of being; it’s an [...]

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Pif Magazine: Kept
by Kirsten Clodfelter
“Kept,” by Kirsten Clodfelter, is short but sweet. This story doesn’t try to be an expansive epic condensed into jot of flash fiction. Instead it’s a piece of flash fiction that reveals intimacy, love, and the fear those things bring. From the opening line, “The girl was wearing one of his [...]

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Inkwell: In Transit
by Kristen-Paige Madonia
“In Transit,” by Kristen-Paige Madonia, is a look at momentum, how people move and how they stop, the forces that and impulses that guide our decisions. The main character, Sapphire, is a twenty-seven year old writer who has fled to California from a New York life of privilege and obligation. Now [...]

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