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. […]
"You can make anything by writing." — CS Lewis
"A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world." — Susan Sontag
"To survive, you must tell stories." — Umberto Eco
"It takes a lot of bad writing to get to a little good writing." — Truman Capote
"I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them." — Haruki Murakami
Debra Daniel Writer’s Note: One day at my hair salon, my stylist was altering a wig to fit one of his clients. […]
Adele Evershed Writer’s Note: This piece was inspired by the poem ‘What Do Women Want’ by Kim Addonizio. I was in a […]
Colleen Kearney Rich When the clerk at the hardware store asks about her fingerless gloves, the fancy red leather ones she treated […]
Becky May We reminisce about dahl baht, the way it coated our tongues, the rice fluffed to perfection, the greens we´d try […]
Fiona McKay I was in high school when the Preacher arrived. Revivalist this, born again that. A show, all of it, or […]
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 […]
Mathew Gostelow Whiskertense and bristlefur electric, we prowl. The night is ours and we have become one with her chill air. Three […]
Jude Higgins Her mother’s at the door, criticising the litter of mouldy leaves and walking boots on the porch. But then […]
(CW: forced marriage) Sumitra Singam Nadaswaram blaring in her ear. Mridangam beat pounding in her chest. Sanskrit verses cracking like thunder. Petals […]
Karen Arnold It happened so slowly, the falling apart. We got used to it, each frayed stitch, each reduction, each thinning and […]
Helen Chambers Move fireside-close; warm away your bone-ache. A bitter evening to be out. You’re the last to stumble this way […]
Gretchen Filart There is much to be said about gourmand meals and killing. The more ingrained torture isbefore basting the meat, the […]
L. Soviero Flat building. Flat windows. Flat sky. Flat sun. Alex kicks a can. It ricochets off the building wall. […]
Lyndsey Croal I know the change is coming from the scratch in my throat. Next, my fingers elongate and sharpen as […]
Bayveen O’Connell After the harvest moon, the Famine Grave yawns open and scores of corpses clamber onto the red carpet of Japanese […]
DW McKinney The mother calls her daughter Little Bird for the golden tufts atop her head and the way she mimics the […]
Ani Banerjee Adjacent to the burning ghat in Benaras, in the narrow winding maze of lanes filled with stores selling marijuana […]
Georgia Bellas We rattle the door without a doorknob. We press against its wood, damp and swollen in the frame, but it […]
Rosaleen Lynch Mam boils the skull until flesh falls off, and scrapes the rest, but fat melts into bone, leaving it a […]
Steve Campbell Janet slumped down onto the sodden floor, back against the side of the bath, a high-pitched ringing in her ears. […]
Eda Tse Decide this time you’re done. Find a secluded section of the park. Put your back into it when you dig. […]
Sally Khan I is She. Enola. She could go days without actually speaking with anyone because the Voice inside My head would […]
Lucy Holme —after Anne Carson It was February or March, I don’t recall. A garden-terrace flat, in the Latin Quarter. The trees […]
Stephanie Carty Stella is a scientist of men. She logs every detail in the notebook of her mind: the creasing of […]
Janice Leadingham Your wife called to me, John Bell. She came to the craggy grin, the doorway to my home under […]
Avra Margariti Neighborhood beauties competing for Best Scream, an apple red and rotund on each of our coiffed heads. We are making […]
Eliot Li …and the plumber in navy blue coveralls rattles his sewer auger, ready to impale it. Moments before, the […]
Jared Povanda Matilde shuts her eyes to spite falling dust,rain spearing holes through the roof, and her wifeis up there alone in […]
S A Greene Judith serves herself both of Mother’s breasts without consulting. ‘An arm for me, please.’ says Emma. ‘Actually, […]
Frances Gapper We invite Auntie to tea. Hiding our lips behind flowery teacups, we peep at her. She is lamb chops, […]
Karen Walker The Gods took Papa. So where is spring? Winter drips from the thatch. He was a good papa, a careful weaver […]
Cole Beauchamp Not all spiders catch their prey in webs. We learned this on the longest day of the year. […]
Kik Lodge You can never leave the place you die in, Harriet says, and Fay nods like a hand puppet. […]
Louise Norgate … look out! Careful!Oh god, poor thing, it doesn’t look likeit’s been there all that long.We should go back – […]
Shome Dasgupta Writer’s Note: I wrote this piece more so with the intentions of entering a stream of consciousness mentality. I like […]
Susmita Bhattacharya (First published in The University of Winchester Writers’ Festival – The Best of 2016) Writer’s Note: I wrote this essay […]
Caroline Bock Writer’s Note: These works were jumpstarted in an asynchronous workshop ‘Less is More’ run by Sarah Freligh, a master teacher […]
Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: Travelling to Ireland from France could sometimes cause culture shock. This piece started with my father’s reaction to […]
Lindz McLeod Writer’s Note: Near my home, there’s a high tunnel where pigeons nest; whenever I pass through it, I wondered whether […]
Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: Small Town came from observations when visiting my old home town irregularly over the years, noting the changes, […]
Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: Delete water was provoked by a very vivid memory of myself and a few student friends huddled over […]
Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: I set out to write a flash about a quiet teenager who seems more mature than her parents’ […]
Sarah McPherson Pristine snowfall; the familiar made unfamiliar by winter. The early morning light touches each heap and hollow lightly. She is […]
Frances Gapper Now it’s not safe to go out, they order bottles of guaranteed healthy air and crave injections of fresh young […]
Marie Little Jennifer carefully tightens the last tiny wingnut, a turn for a word: serendipity, coruscate, hullabaloo. The press is beginning to […]
Amanda Saint A pair of scuffed Kicker boots (size 5) —love-heart patterned socks tucked neatly inside, rainbow laces tied together to make […]
Colleen Kearney Rich Pam doesn’t plan to lie. It just slips out. Imagined life made real. The girl at work, her face […]
Peter Burns Sixth day standing at this bus stop staring across at him in the bookies, he comes out plunging his […]
Kate Axeford Saints It started with the cows. Jacob saw them straight-lining it out of Hobson’s farm as if they sensed […]
Jeanine Skowronski 1. We dig holes, because Wren insists there’s treasure buried in this dirt. We unearth silver slips of paper, two […]