Prose: “Salmon Head Soup” by Jen Ippensen

He didn’t see me when he arrived at the restaurant, but I recognized him from the picture my mother had shown me. It was her idea, to get back out there, to set me up with her coworker’s nephew. “Girl,” she’d said, “you just need to find the right man.” At our table, while the […]

Prose: “Goat Herd” by Dan Pinkerton

Often I would visit the path that ran through the greenbelt. It was full of harmless people like me, simple outdoor enthusiasts. Allegedly, a stalker once emerged from the trees and menaced young women with a knife, but that was several years ago, ancient history, water under the bridge. The city crew was always nearby, […]

Prose: “Fernly” by Deborah S. Prespare

She pushes her toys to the side and sits cross-legged on the floor. Other dolls and stuffed animals look down at her from the tops of her bed and dresser. Bored with them too, she rests her forehead against the yellow wall. She breathes and forgets where she is. She breathes and forgets her father […]

Prose: “Dissolve” by Alexis Bentz

The 6:45 to Cleveland is, of course, delayed. Rolling her eyes, the woman retrieves her laptop from its sleeve to review the meeting notes for a seventh time. She pauses, pops a God-knows-how-old peppermint fished from the depths of her purse into her mouth, and that’s when she sees the girl: maybe eight years old […]

Prose: “A Hollingsworth Hotel” by Gretchen Troxell

“There are two individuals I’d like to report missing, Mister….” Ez glances down at the sun-weathered sign-in book. There are dozens of spills decorating the nearly moldy signatures. “Hansen, Richard Hansen, and Ms. Elizabeth Clay… Seventy-two hours ago… the Hollingsworth Hotel…. Yeah, same thing…. Okay, thanks.” She hangs up the phone before turning to me […]

Prose: “Pirates of the Willamette” by Adam Matson

They say you can’t choose your neighbors, but if you’re homeless, you basically can choose your neighbors. You can choose your neighborhood. You can live in a tent down by the river, if you want to. And that’s what Finn did. Pitched her tent in a shady nook beside the Willamette River on the edge […]

Prose: “Bridget” by Sam Curreli

I freaking love Fridays. Not because the week is over; not because I can sleep in all I want for the next two days—no. Weekends are lonely. I never know who will be around here. This includes my roommate Rebecca, who, much like my older sister, sometimes likes to pretend I don’t exist. So, I […]

Prose: “The Carrot Poopgate Affair: The Secret History of Poopgate, Carrots, and President Amar Akbar Anthony, our First US President with Multiple Personalities” by Hafeez Diwan

Was there something about the carrot, as opposed to a radish, a cucumber, or zucchini? It could easily have been a tomato had it not been for the fact that, in a moment of panic, I picked up a carrot instead of a tomato. There were plenty of tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, celery (celery would have […]

Prose: “Interloper From Another Neighborhood” by Douglas Steward

At any one time there are scores of houses in the Grosse Pointe area that sit empty, serving time as silent citadels of the neighborhood. They’re owned by family estates whose administrators diligently pay the taxes and heating expenses year after year. They never dream of putting the property up for sale and risk having […]

PROSE: “Collect” by Richard Charles Schaefer

After 20 years, Benjamin Wheeler was just another person I didn’t talk to anymore, never mind why; when a friendship is that far in the rearview, a falling out and a quiet fizzle are both specks on the horizon. Human-interest stories don’t interest me, so I don’t know why I read the article on the “Collection […]