Alberto Chimal
Translated by George Bert Henson
Sometimes, the children and grandchildren of Mexican drug barons choose occupations different from those of their elders. They opt for business administration, engineering, political science, and other respectable careers where their social status will afford them opportunities for advancement.
Matthew Roberson
Not long after Sarah suggested (pretty declaratively, for a suggestion, really) that Rob haul himself and his stuff out the front door to somewhere, anywhere else, he wandered across his colleague and not-distant neighbor while out for an evening’s walk of the dogs.
By Michael J. Coene
Ireached up to touch my face. I had just finished peeing. It occurred to me that I hadn’t washed my hands. Now my pee was in my beard. I checked my reflection. I couldn’t see my pee in the beard of my reflection.
By Nicole Brodsky
The first day, Benjamin’s ponytail embarrassed her. Two days later, she put it in her mouth. She cried the first time they had sex. He said, “I can’t wait to tell you I love you.”
By Kara Vernor
Sometimes life gives you a sign that you are ready for your next adventure. For me that sign was my period, which I got for the first time during Mrs. Keever’s eighth grade biology.
By Jennifer Lee
The woman had flown in many planes before and knew that most people conflated travel with adventure, movement with insight. The flutter in her chest was just the engine’s vibration, she told herself.
By Venegas James
Muralists begin by drawing on the body. She drew muscles on her arms. She drew birds across the blue sky of bruises appearing on her skin. Her bones became the balance beams her blood learned to dance on.
By Stephanie Mataya
Heidi was growing increasingly selfish and Gary was running out of energy. It seemed to start innocently enough; she made a logical argument when she said that grocery stores were less busy in the evenings.
By Joel Tomfohr
Jeremy and Tony materialized out of the darkness of night with someone new named Jim. In the strange half-light the man reminded the boy of Grandpa Lenz.
By Nick Roth
The first comment Geoffrey received was, “You misspelled alot of words and your spellchecker didn’t pick them up because they are the correct spellings of other words.”
By Ascher/Straus
Tammy’s sharing Junior’s broiled scrod and mashed potatoes and eating most of it because he’s having trouble swallowing. They’re watching tv together and she’s chattering happily, asking him questions that he can’t answer.
By Han Ong
Icall Norton and (where else would a number made available on the internet get you?) speak to a young voice, front-of-office, an unpaid intern probably, not unfriendly, not unhelpful, but the gist is the sooner I get past him, the sooner I’ll get to—
Por Elena V. Molina
Entrevistas
Un grupo de personas son entrevistadas respondiendo la misma pregunta: ¿qué es Democracia?
By Elena V. Molina
Translated by George Bert Henson
Interviews
A group of people respond to the same interview question: “What is democracy?” Later the recording of their voices and faces is cut into small pieces and ordered in such a way that they give a continuous speech written by the editor.
By Peg Alford Pursell
Ihadn’t visited the abandoned church by the sea in many years, not since that day with my teenage daughter.
By João Anzanello Carrascoza
Translated by Ilze Duarte
violent, the water crashes, and the white foam advances toward the sand and, eyes stung by the salt, his lips part and he laughs, my boy, and soon another wave builds up, grows and gets ready and catch this one
By Keith Stahl
Marne didn’t believe that Geoff saw a buffalo in the woods behind the cemetery. He could tell because he got the same distracted I believe she always gave on Sunday mornings when he switched her over from the TV evangelists to NFL Today.
By Ihsan Abdel Quddous
Translated by Nabeel Yaseen
I will never forget Madam Angel. Months might pass without my having any thought of her—but suddenly, while I sit at the dinner table or perhaps walk out of my office, I see her rawboned face in my mind.
By Kelly Werrell
In each moment, she was digging a smaller and smaller hole until she came upon a skeleton, and time for a moment stopped. The skeleton was a curved, small body, and it lay there at the bottom.
By Timothy DeLizza
Surrealist sexual playing cards lined the wall of Dali’s restaurant. Each was as small as a regular playing card and had the pair making love to each other in unlikely positions. Some cards had two men, some two women, some a woman with a monster.
By Laura Legge
Kiki was not fun. She had been forced to live faithfully so her identical twin, Bouba, could survive as her shadow.
By Jorge Enrique Lage
Translated by George Bert Henson
I arrived in Nokia in the spring.
I had the address: a building in the city’s center.
By Pedro de Jesús
Translated by Dick Cluster
It’s up to you, Pancho. If you listen to Caleb, to his advice to find someplace else to enjoy the fresh air or go home to bed, this guy Osiris is not going to spoil your night.
By Zulema de la Rúa Fernández
Translated by George Bert Henson
Ever since I was a little girl I always wanted to be a porn star. Of course, I didn’t know that was what they were called. I used to look at my brother’s magazines and videos when no one was looking, and I’d imagine myself in a close-up of an aesthetically designed orgy.
By Mylene Fernández Pintado
Translated by Dick Cluster
Violeta chose her outfit carefully—it needed to be sexy but not shameless—and climbed into a pair of heels that elevated her as if she’d ascended the podium after a hard-won victory.
By Anna Lidia Vega Serova
Translated by Mary G. Berg
At first he asked her about her life and things in general, but then, lost in his own thoughts, he didn’t listen to what she said.
By Emerio Medina
Translated by George Bert Henson
By then a lot of people were trying to leave the Island. A lot of people were making plans and calculations. They hunched over maps by night, plotting routes in the water, shut themselves up in their apartments, and talked about the trip and their new life.
By Nancy Alonso
Translated by Anne Fountain
Olga Lidia crossed the Plaza Vieja toward the terrace of The Escorial Café under a light drizzle and sat down at a table to wait for Claribel.
By Marilyn BobesTranslated by Anne Fountain na Carla Urizarri was an expert on abortions. At sixteen she had her first one when Freddy, a classmate at the Preparatory to whom she lost her precarious and never highly valued virginity, left her...
By Laidi Fernández de Juan
Translated by Mary G. Berg
I.
At six AM María E went out to the veranda to sit in the cane rocker. Five minutes later, she was agreeably surprised by the way the sun rose, and she hoped that perhaps the spell would begin to lose its grip on her.