Fiction/Nonfiction: fiction

  • Bridezilla

    A couple plans to get married in a world that might be ending due to climate change and sea monsters. I could have read hundreds more pages taking place in this world. It brings new meaning to the term ‘cold feet’. (from Lena Valencia’s Personal Anthology)

  • The Beast

    A woman’s life starts coming undone as she discovers that an old flame is coming back to town. This story is like a slow-motion car crash. I couldn’t look away. (from Lena Valencia’s Personal Anthology)

  • Vagabond Mannequin

    Blog fave Avitus B. Carle uses a crossword puzzle as a hook for a story that affected me deeply. Just click, it’s fast and unforgettable.

  • Dancer

    A performer at tacky corporate events dreams of being a professional tapdancer. This story is so propulsive, and the characters are so real.

  • When I Say Grief

    a single paragraph mourning the end of a marriage, brilliantly written: “My husband left me in February. He left with my love in his hands, and I walked to the pharmacy for a carton of eggs.”

  • Sophia Goes Bowling at 3AM

    Everyone had a childhood friend like Sophia, but most of those friendships didn’t go this way.

  • Juice

    I’d read this when it was new and forgotten about it. It’s funny throughout, with a brilliant final paragraph.

  • Professor Leonora Looks Back

    The narrator juxtaposes classroom lessons with other, more significant events

  • The Last Faculty Meeting

    a weird, slow reveal of something very unexpected during a relatable work meeting.

  • This Mine of Mine

    One of the weirdest stories I’ve read recently, starts like this and gets weirder as it goes: You wouldn’t guess it looking at me now, but I had a pretty ordinary childhood and early adulthood. My parents weren’t rich, but we weren’t poor either. I grew up in one of those suburbs where every house…