J.G. Jesman
“Chitsanzo, whose name means “example,” is very pleased with his outfit for the wedding. He has no idea who is getting married, but the local saying is that, Ants don’t need an invitation to enjoy sugar.”
The Chinkhoswe
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Excerpt from Fishflies: the Men of the Riverhouse
Marream Krollos
“I waited for Otis to knock on the door of 716, I knew I would recognize the knock. I stared at the door as if … my heart, my stomach, my limbs were bats sending sonar out the door, into the Riverhouse.”
The House
Nikki Barnhart
“When my childhood was over, I moved out. There was a big, old house on the far end of town, convenient to nothing. No one wanted to go over there, much less live, but I could afford it, everything that it had to offer.”
Torch Song of Myself
Dale Peck
“The first man I was sexually attracted to was Luke Skywalker. The first man I loved shot one of his johns when he was fifteen. The first man I had sex with was my best friend in college.”
Excerpt from Marriage
Marina Mariasch
Translated by Ellen Jones
“In relationships, everything that matters is hidden and should remain so for the benefit of all major stakeholders. Dirty laundry is a research tool that allows us to penetrate the deepest folds of the conjugal fabric.”
Tijuana
By Victoria Ballesteros
“In dreams, I glide past borders and through concrete doors to reach places I have never left. I fly over green picket fences and bougainvillea trees adorned with slivers of the past.”
A Chinese Temple in California
Alvin Lu
Did the workmen who received the pieces carried by cart and mule know what they were doing? There would be, and still are, strict rules for feng shui. Did the delivery come with instructions? Or did the builders just go by their infallible memories?
In This Case, He Killed an Innocent Person
Carla Bessa
Translated by Elton Uliana
A renowned businessman was arrested unexpectedly early this Friday, after an accident in which he ran over and killed a workman in the South Zone of Rio. According to the chief of police, the driver will be charged with manslaughter (where there is no intention of killing) and drunk driving.
The Gorge
James Warner
“I remember buying Guy Dieppe’s novel—at a bookstall beside the Seine, one spring afternoon—more clearly than I recall my first reading of it. It included some enjoyable phrases, which I now forget, but made no impression otherwise.”
The Cathedral of Desire
Nina Schuyler
“Before she taped closed the box of Floor Polish Shine, she slid in her note, I miss watermelon. And with the bottle of Mold Killer, I miss pink tulips.
The notes didn’t harm anyone. Little scraps of paper, a message that there was more to the Cathedral of Desire than what met the eye.”
Excerpt from Mice 1961
Stacey Levine
“Sherrie Gagel pushed through the throng toward the head branch librarian, declaring with a patchy pant: ‘May I ask you something Miss Stroke? I’ve wanted to for ages.’”
Mistake or Accident
Laurie Stone
“I gave a man I loved a mug, a silk shirt, and a copy of Baudelaire. In time he became better at sex. After he left me, I saw him at a memorial service and wondered if he still had the shirt, the mug, the copy of Baudelaire.”
Tikibik
Dominic Blewett
“Wildly in love, we did not pause to consider failure. Ina was ready to return home and I for a new adventure. We moved quickly, recklessly, uprooting our lives and flinging them across the globe.”
The Border
Solomon Samson
“For a while, she stares at him as if he belongs to a race once thought extinct. This is not part of her job. She is just trying to go the extra mile. But the look on the boy’s face tells her that it is not time to slow down.”
Panthera onca
Jasleena Grewal
“A jaguar, like a child, indicates the health of a system. It is a keystone. In this pulse place—its body estuarine, current with blood—a jaguar plays like a cat and yolks her hunts.”
Dirk
Julia Kohli
Translated by Rob Myatt
“Attending gender studies seminars had become the new trend in the men’s forums he frequented for fun on an occasional, meaning daily, basis: a bit of reporting back and swapping notes, talking about the different types of ugliness among women.”
Nonie in Excelsis (Excerpt from About Ed)
Robert Glück
“A knock at the door. There stood Nonie’s downstairs neighbor, hands folded and face lifted in pleasure. On second glance she was sixty or so and yes, beautiful.”
Gospel of Mary
Michael Garcia Bertrand
“In the middle of determining whether two multivariate polynomials were indistinguishable, Judas Borges discovered he was Jesus Christ.”
Excerpt from Dictionary
John M. Kuhlman
“neph·ew \ʹne-(ͺ)fyü\ n. 1. A human skeleton that has been unearthed by a burrowing dog, often in an unexpected location, such as a vacant lot or beneath the soil of a neighbor’s yard.”
Padre de Familia
John Rey Dave Aquino
“His father knelt and held his shoulders with both hands, looking at him from head to toe, his large hands growing heavy on Lyon’s shoulders. Uneasy under his father’s stare, Lyon observed his father in return.”
Ode to Zheka
Olga Krause
Translated by Grace Sewell
“Of course, poetry’s good for nothing. Rich people chew on it, but they’re already full. As for the rest of us, well, read a poem to your grumbling belly and see what good it does you!”
Oranges; Charcoal
Michele Kilmer
“We lost the house in May 1982. I hate that term; lost the house. I knew right where it was. Still do.”
My Wife Was Drunk at Hobby Lobby
James Miller
“I asked about Golden Books, for our child. Did she ever read the Hans Brinker one? We couldn’t remember where the death came in.”
Woodwork
James Miller
“Mitch makes each finger in the garage. He takes a block of cheap Home Depot pine and carves out the shape of pointing. I like to say they’re all index, homing for the Forms.”
The Teacher
James Miller
“The teacher woke up one morning and found a dead squirrel stinking up the flowerbed in his front yard.”
The Good Man
James Miller
“The good man wanted to spend quality time with the kid—his wife’s little brother.”
The Lion
Farhad Pirbal
Translated by Alana Marie Levinson-LaBrosse and Jiyar Homer
“That’s it then. This is my life now: always this cold and wretched wandering from this little room to the rooftop and from the rooftop back inside, like a prisoner.”
The First Ghost I Ever Saw Was
Marshall Moore
“A darkness had always surrounded our house. Locked boxes, empty rooms. Secrets hinted at, but never discussed. My sister (we’ll call her J.) and I were characters in our own ghost story as it played out in the modern manor house in the country-club suburbs.”
Buffalo
Siamak Vossoughi
“Look at me, he thought, an Iranian man in the middle of this America. Wandering through town after the thing is over and the battle lost.”
Iron Cloud
Suzana Stojanović
“Why didn’t you ever tell me to avoid some places?’
‘You wanted to meet the world.’”