by Randall Perry

“That feeling when you step in a piece of dog shit on your way to work & you move off the sidewalk to the grass to wipe it off but it’s gotten into the treads on the bottom of your shoe & you know you’re going to have to scrape it out with a stick…”

by Tulip Chowdhury

“I wondered what she was ordering; I could see a plate of wanton and a glass of water with ice resting in front of her. Apparently, she was not eating anything.”

by Nicolas Rivera

“The trick is to do the opposite of convention. Lighting, video quality, the flattery of a flirtatious angle are important details, but the key to social media is delivery.”

by Elizabeth Sundstrom

“I cannot imagine Rick alone without Petal or envision her aged parents burying their only child. How will I endure Saturday mornings without Petal’s voice, soft and clear, reaching out across the Atlantic?”

by Maria Pianelli Blair

“I think it’s modern Darwinism — how would we expect our girls to survive, otherwise? A girl needs a little firepower every now and again.”

by Alexander Holcomb

“I crouched under the window, ready to reveal myself to the police. My brother sat beside me. Would they use handcuffs? I hoped not.”

by Eric Angal

“The kid stands there, shadowboxing in the felt earth. He can hear the creek chuckling to his right. The sky is the color of a ripe persimmon.”

by Erin Dawkins

“I looked down at the newly bloomed flowers that grew fully without attention or care. Without water or seed. Plucked before they’re primed, soon to brown at the edges and wilt.“

by Sumitra Singam

“It was never clear who hurled the first stone. The flinty piece of rock hit her on the head, leaving a dark bloom of blood.”

by Reagan Davenport

“For a moment, I saw nothing, heard nothing, but I felt her moving again inside me. For a moment, we were both alive.”

by Mary Grimm

“The ghost president has some spare time and decides to write a bestselling novel. It will, he tells the aide who brings him his Sausage McMuffin accompanied by two Hash Browns, each in their paper envelope, be based on a dream he had last week.”

by Myna Chang

“She shoves my tie aside, taps a button mid-chest with the blade, tap tap tap. Who is this bitch? She’s grinning again, all teeth, and she smells like copper, like old pennies…”

by Walter Weinschenk

“The sea is a tumult, a terrifying process, and I’m too scared to venture out, too afraid to move, but too afraid to be alone…”

by Elodie Ashcroft

“the ugly traffic lights remain, the lights that stop and start us, that take our choice away.”

by Eric Angal

“I met the guru last year at Wildheart: The Mid-Life Retreat For Men. He led the program’s transcendental meditation seminars and worked individually with retreat attendees to prescribe unique mantras to us, and to help us understand the uses and benefits of TM.”

by William P. Adams

“Kirby and the Market were so closely linked that no one on Belle Island could remember when there was one without the other. “

by Susan Flint

“I LIVED IN A CITY WHERE THE MONEY FESTERS LIKE MOLD. I HUNG AROUND THAT CITY’S NECK. I ATE THE SCRAPS IT FED ME…I ENDURED THE SIGHT OF HOMELESS PEOPLE ON THE SUBWAY AND I THOUGHT IT MADE ME SPECIAL. I SWALLOWED CIGARETTES WHOLE.”

by Emily Buli

“It starts with a video of two women kissing, which intrigues me in a way I don’t fully understand. Megan watches on the bean bag beside me. Her eyes are like glass—red and distant as she takes swigs of hard lemonade with one hand and pets her dog with the other.”

by Emmi Khor

“The votes were in; she would soon be Queen and her words finally matter.“

by James Zoller

“I was born into a family of great failures.”