Bartholomew Makes Wigs

Debra Daniel Writer’s Note: One day at my hair salon, my stylist was altering a wig to fit one of his clients. […]

Heart in Hand

Colleen Kearney Rich When the clerk at the hardware store asks about her fingerless gloves, the fancy red leather ones she treated […]

Small Gods

Becky May We reminisce about dahl baht, the way it coated our tongues, the rice fluffed to perfection, the greens we´d try […]

Cult Status

Fiona McKay I was in high school when the Preacher arrived. Revivalist this, born again that. A show, all of it, or […]

Night of Myth

Kate Deimling Alight,baleful crow.Djinn enter frenziedgoats. Hoary incubus jumps.Kronos laughs madly, nervously, oglespallid queens. Rising seraphimtremble under violet weather.Exit youthful zephyrs. Kate […]

Manna

Jude Higgins               Her mother’s at the door, criticising the litter of mouldy leaves and walking boots on the porch. But then […]

The Best Day of Her Life

(CW: forced marriage) Sumitra Singam Nadaswaram blaring in her ear. Mridangam beat pounding in her chest. Sanskrit verses cracking like thunder. Petals […]

The Boys of the Loup Garou

Karen Arnold It happened so slowly, the falling apart. We got used to it, each frayed stitch, each reduction, each thinning and […]

The Parting Glass

Helen Chambers               Move fireside-close; warm away your bone-ache. A bitter evening to be out. You’re the last to stumble this way […]

Killing for the Gourmet

Gretchen Filart There is much to be said about gourmand meals and killing. The more ingrained torture isbefore basting the meat, the […]

Everything is Flat

L. Soviero               Flat building. Flat windows. Flat sky. Flat sun.               Alex kicks a can. It ricochets off the building wall. […]

Unfurl

Lyndsey Croal               I know the change is coming from the scratch in my throat. Next, my fingers elongate and sharpen as […]

Hunger

Bayveen O’Connell After the harvest moon, the Famine Grave yawns open and scores of corpses clamber onto the red carpet of Japanese […]

Little Bird

DW McKinney The mother calls her daughter Little Bird for the golden tufts atop her head and the way she mimics the […]

The Tantrik

Ani Banerjee             Adjacent to the burning ghat in Benaras, in the narrow winding maze of lanes filled with stores selling marijuana […]

The Closet

Georgia Bellas We rattle the door without a doorknob. We press against its wood, damp and swollen in the frame, but it […]

Skin Beetles

Rosaleen Lynch Mam boils the skull until flesh falls off, and scrapes the rest, but fat melts into bone, leaving it a […]

Warning

Eda Tse Decide this time you’re done. Find a secluded section of the park. Put your back into it when you dig. […]

I is She. 

Sally Khan I is She.  Enola. She could go days without actually speaking with anyone because the Voice inside My head would […]

Science Never Sleeps

Stephanie Carty               Stella is a scientist of men. She logs every detail in the notebook of her mind: the creasing of […]

Witch

Janice Leadingham               Your wife called to me, John Bell. She came to the craggy grin, the doorway to my home under […]

The Storm on All Hallows’ Eve

Jared Povanda Matilde shuts her eyes to spite falling dust,rain spearing holes through the roof, and her wifeis up there alone in […]

Mint Sauce

Frances Gapper               We invite Auntie to tea. Hiding our lips behind flowery teacups, we peep at her. She is lamb chops, […]

Wolf Spiders Hunt in Packs

Cole Beauchamp               Not all spiders catch their prey in webs. We learned this on the longest day of the year.               […]

The Geometry of Dead Girls

Kik Lodge               You can never leave the place you die in, Harriet says, and Fay nods like a hand puppet.               […]

Roadkill

Louise Norgate … look out! Careful!Oh god, poor thing, it doesn’t look likeit’s been there all that long.We should go back – […]

In The Shadow of a Bird

Shome Dasgupta Writer’s Note: I wrote this piece more so with the intentions of entering a stream of consciousness mentality. I like […]

Touchstone – A Cancer Diary, 2014

Susmita Bhattacharya (First published in The University of Winchester Writers’ Festival – The Best of 2016) Writer’s Note: I wrote this essay […]

Double-Glaze

Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: Travelling to Ireland from France could sometimes cause culture shock. This piece started with my father’s reaction to […]

The Weight of Feathers

Lindz McLeod Writer’s Note: Near my home, there’s a high tunnel where pigeons nest; whenever I pass through it, I wondered whether […]

Small Town

Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: Small Town came from observations when visiting my old home town irregularly over the years, noting the changes, […]

Delete water, insert rubbish

Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: Delete water was provoked by a very vivid memory of myself and a few student friends huddled over […]

White Feathers, Scarlet Heart

Sarah McPherson Pristine snowfall; the familiar made unfamiliar by winter. The early morning light touches each heap and hollow lightly. She is […]

Whelk

Frances Gapper Now it’s not safe to go out, they order bottles of guaranteed healthy air and crave injections of fresh young […]

Torque

Marie Little Jennifer carefully tightens the last tiny wingnut, a turn for a word: serendipity, coruscate, hullabaloo.  The press is beginning to […]

Special Victims

Colleen Kearney Rich Pam doesn’t plan to lie. It just slips out. Imagined life made real. The girl at work, her face […]

Snapshot

Peter Burns               Sixth day standing at this bus stop staring across at him in the bookies, he comes out plunging his […]

On the Backroads

Jeanine Skowronski 1. We dig holes, because Wren insists there’s treasure buried in this dirt. We unearth silver slips of paper, two […]