Snow Day
byI DON’T HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL ON SNOW DAYS, DAD SAYS. There are more important things I have to learn. In some places, there is no school on snow…
Stories
Faithful
bynew year’s eve SOMETIME BEFORE MIDNIGHT, HE WALKS OUT ONTO A BALCONY. He climbs onto the ledge and stands there — on the tails of an old year, inching precariously…
A Place to Rest
bySOME PEOPLE FORGET ABOUT DYING AT THE HOUSE ON PINE STREET. Unadorned and unmarked, the white clapboard house delineated the final reaches of suburbia. Surrounded by identical structures, this building…
Log Cabin
byWHEN THEY GOT HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL, SHE PUT THEIR BABY IN THE BASSINET NEXT TO HER SIDE OF THE BED. Six feet away, she rocked herself in his mother’s…
There’s a Patch of Dirt Behind the House
byAS LEWIS AND CAITLYN TOURED THE BACKYARD OF THE BEST PROSPECT THEY HAD SEEN SO FAR in their three-month search for a house, they came upon a grassless, concave patch…
Ocean World
byMY EYES ARE FIXED ON THE BLUE DENIM VICE STRANGLING THAT PERFECT ASS. I wish to be a folded dollar bill, a playing card, a Lego man, anything small enough…
Embryology
byThis is a story from Bridge Eight Fiction Prize Winner Ghosts Caught on Film. Order the book here >> THERE WAS CHARLES GOODYEAR, WHO FIRST STUMBLED ONTO THE PROCESS OF VULCANIZATION by…
A View From the California Grass
byReflections on Song of Ourselves: Walt Whitman and the Fight for Democracy Can you live it? —Mark Edmundson As a serious reader and teacher of Mark Edmundson’s work, I have grappled…
Jenny’s Wishing Well
byLINDA STARTED FILLING THE POOL WITH PENNIES THE DAY AFTER JENNY’S FUNERAL. Jenny had been fascinated with the idea of wishes, birthday wishes, wishes on a star, wishes from genies,…
Snowballs in Hell, 1944
byIN THE FIERCE, SNOWY DECEMBER OF 1944, FIVE AMERICAN SOLDIERS KNELT IN A DITCH. The ditch bisected a Belgian glade. For days these men had been pinned down by a…