stories

Ka, Ba, and Akh
Okay Donkey
I don’t think Mom meant to be a pain, but mummification’s hard to come by.

The Princess Diana Experience trampset The Parisian hospital looked like every other hospital—gray and grayer, boring if it weren’t for the flashes of emergency red.

The Princess Diana Experience
trampset
The Parisian hospital looked like every other hospital—gray and grayer, boring if it weren’t for the flashes of emergency red.

Baby Dolls selected for the 2019 Best Microfiction anthology [PANK] My mother isn’t always Raggedy Ann, but she was when I was born. Week before Halloween, office party.

Baby Dolls
selected for the 2019 Best Microfiction anthology
[PANK]
My mother isn’t always Raggedy Ann, but she was when I was born. Week before Halloween, office party.

True Love Travels on a Gravel Road Trash Magazine I named your car Schnauzer because its bumper dragged like a tattered gray mustache on the pavement.

True Love Travels on a Gravel Road
Trash Magazine
I named your car Schnauzer because its bumper dragged like a tattered gray mustache on the pavement.

The Loosening Grip nominated for the 2020 Best Small Fictions anthology Longleaf Review Of course she asks if she can keep it. She usually hoards whatever she finds floating near the stern—empty beer cans, folded tourist maps, shredded bike tires—wi…

The Loosening Grip
nominated for the 2020 Best Small Fictions anthology
Longleaf Review
Of course she asks if she can keep it. She usually hoards whatever she finds floating near the stern—empty beer cans, folded tourist maps, shredded bike tires—without asking permission.

I Saw Goody Proctor Help the Devil Rotate a PDF
nominated for the 2024 Best Microfiction anthology
Paranoid Tree
You’re under thirty, so like the rest of your generation you’ve become de-facto tech support.

Sanctuary
Juked Magazine
When Michael told me what had happened to Nell, I thought it must have been the machetes.

A Woman Possessed Passages North On the advice of her therapist, Meryl fled her haunted house for an extended vacation somewhere warm and sunny.

A Woman Possessed
Passages North
On the advice of her therapist, Meryl fled her haunted house for an extended vacation somewhere warm and sunny.

Open Wide Occulum A stranger inside your mouth with needles, pliers, a bone saw. Buzzzzz. Turn your head this way, please.

Open Wide
Occulum
A stranger inside your mouth with needles, pliers, a bone saw. Buzzzzz. Turn your head this way, please.

Separation Anxiety CHEAP POP I left him there because she’s the only other thing he took to. Not his father, not his brother. Only the sheep’s dirty pink belly, and me.

Separation Anxiety
CHEAP POP
I left him there because she’s the only other thing he took to. Not his father, not his brother. Only the sheep’s dirty pink belly, and me.

Radioactive Teeth Paper Darts It was 1956, and she had radioactive teeth. It was fifth grade, and she had radioactive teeth. So cool.

Radioactive Teeth
Paper Darts
It was 1956, and she had radioactive teeth.
It was fifth grade, and she had radioactive teeth.
So cool.

Hell of a Game
Necessary Fiction
I had to go out with him, no question—the same way I’d have gone out with an astronaut or a cowboy or a bank robber if their profiles had popped up on the dating app first. A real character.

Black Mass at Denny’s
No Contact
One French Toast Slam. One Santa Fe Sizzlin’ Skillet. One Moons Over My Hammy. Gas station merlot in a travel mug.

SEEKING NEW GOD FOR AFTER COVID (AND BEYOND) The Daily Drunk Attractive, ex-Catholic woman in late 30s with part-time employment seeks powerful but compassionate deity for long-term, monotheistic relationship post-pandemic

SEEKING NEW GOD FOR AFTER COVID (AND BEYOND)
The Daily Drunk
Attractive, ex-Catholic woman in late 30s with part-time employment seeks powerful but compassionate deity for long-term, monotheistic relationship post-pandemic

Apple Crisp as Symptom Milk Candy Review What on Earth does my son’s name matter? There are three of him—four at most—and they all look like their worthless father, who comes and goes.

Apple Crisp as Symptom
Milk Candy Review
What on Earth does my son’s name matter? There are three of him—four at most—and they all look like their worthless father, who comes and goes.

In Captivity Pithead Chapel It wings over her at night, 1:45 a.m. precisely: the desire to own a bird. She imagines cages round and bronze dangling from her ceiling. She imagines names—Fiona for a gray washcloth girl, Felix for a neon marker boy.

In Captivity
Pithead Chapel
It wings over her at night, 1:45 a.m. precisely: the desire to own a bird. She imagines cages round and bronze dangling from her ceiling. She imagines names—Fiona for a gray washcloth girl, Felix for a neon marker boy.

I Saw Goody Proctor and Goody Proctor with the Devil and the Devil
HAD
When you prick your finger with the post of your sterling silver earring and sign your name in his black book—Mead brand, wide-ruled, 70 pages, which he keeps taped underneath the third lunch table on the left—the ramifications of breaking your promise are perfectly clear.

A Whole Breakfast Jellyfish Review Little did he know she’d have her mother’s runny-egg hips that drip hot and congeal every time she shifts.

A Whole Breakfast
Jellyfish Review
Little did he know she’d have her mother’s runny-egg hips that drip hot and congeal every time she shifts.

Fame is the Opposite of Love runner-up, Summer 2017 Flash Fiction Series Midwestern Gothic We were wed in a world without smartphones and cameras, no pictures of the paper lanterns our guests tossed into the hot night sky the moment we first kissed …

Fame is the Opposite of Love
runner-up, Summer 2017 Flash Fiction Series
Midwestern Gothic
We were wed in a world without smartphones and cameras, no pictures of the paper lanterns our guests tossed into the hot night sky the moment we first kissed as man and wife.

Spilled Sriracha Blues FIVE2:ONE’s #thesideshow Have you noticed that you used to say “how are you,” but now that he’s not here you say “how are you doing,” with the emphasis on doing, even though I’m not doing anything different or special, I’m jus…

Spilled Sriracha Blues
FIVE2:ONE’s #thesideshow
Have you noticed that you used to say “how are you,” but now that he’s not here you say “how are you doing,” with the emphasis on doing, even though I’m not doing anything different or special, I’m just ordering food?