Fiction
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Strange Merchants
“When my father encountered his strange merchant in the leather goods shop, he felt free to forge a kind of inside joke with the man. He felt free to belly laugh and drum his fingertips on the counter at the aphorism’s off-color punch line.” Anna Journey considers the closeness of strangers.
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Red Clay
“When she slept, she began to dream whole conversations with Charlie. He spoke to her in the same sweet voice as our father’s Nat King Cole albums. In her dreams, he told her secrets of the animal kingdom; he told her his frustrations and he told her, again and again in his beautiful baritone, that he loved her.” A family’s participation in a chimpanzee experiment drives two sisters apart in this novel excerpt from Kaitlyn…
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Seal Wife
A sea lion sheds her skin and takes a human husband, confronting in innocence the terrors of evolution. By Amy Parker.
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The Showrunner
A hit show, a teenage star, the arc of fame, the walk of shame: A bitterly funny Hollywood fable by Frankie Thomas.
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Famous Battles
When his wife’s old flame returns to their Georgia hometown, a veteran finds himself waging a primordial fight. History and myth, North and South, civilization and nature all clash in this gripping story by Matthew Harrison.
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The Cuddler
Is perfect sex on the perfect piece of furniture really too much to ask? A new story from Trillium Book Award finalist Emily Schultz.
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Miss Emily’s Voyage
An Edwardian drawing-room drama, with laser guns, robots, hardcore pornography, and Faith Hill. By Mac Rogers.
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Battle Creek
“My obsession with Marisa Snow as a possible target began in Advanced English…” In Ann Stewart’s novella, a teenage gay bashing in Michigan’s Cereal City opens out to an exploration of rage, first love, and consequence.
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Homecoming
Running out of trouble in Bed-Stuy — and into it in Virginia. A new story from Belle Boggs, winner of the 2009 Bakeless Prize in Fiction.
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Beneath the Trees
New York, 1920: Sol grabs a girl good. 1937: Sol draws a cake. 1963: Sol saves a purse. An immigrant’s life in America, in three chapters, from Erica Eisdorfer, the author of the new novel The Wet Nurse’s Tale.
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Jobs for Philosophers
A touching and complicated story of a college professor and the lovers, children, and friends who capture her heart. By Michelle Herman, author of the novel Dog.
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Dying Makes You Stronger
Magoo and Audrey work together at the Hawaii Center for Tourism and Culture. When Magoo sets himself on fire, his death is just his first big surprise. By Lance Uyeda.
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Media Vuelta
A Mexican musician travels to America to look for the wife he lost years ago. From Michael Jayme-Becerra, author of the short story collection Every Night Is Ladies’ Night.
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Small Mercies
When Peter’s wife killed herself, he could only be grateful that she’d spared his son. A novella from Tim Winton, the Booker Prize–nominated author of Dirt Music.
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Stray
The best-paid court reporter in Boise, Idaho, moves to San Francisco and brings home an unexpected stray—a toddler. By Melissa Yancy.