No More Chatter
“We grew up without fear, and that taught us we deserved happiness. Now we couldn’t unlearn.” A funeral and a break-in are at the center of a new story by Willie Davis.
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.
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 Greenidge.
The Classics Illustrated Comics Project
Five brand-new comics about adaptation, by Kevin Cannon, Pascal Girard, Melissa Mendes, Andrea Tsurumi, and Noah Van Sciver.
Seal Wife
A sea lion sheds her skin and takes a human husband, confronting in innocence the terrors of evolution. By Amy Parker.
The Showrunner
A hit show, a teenage star, the arc of fame, the walk of shame: A bitterly funny Hollywood fable by Frankie Thomas.
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.
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.
Miss Emily’s Voyage
An Edwardian drawing-room drama, with laser guns, robots, hardcore pornography, and Faith Hill. By Mac Rogers.
The Decisive Ones
In post-Shock and Awe Baghdad, a team of reporters placed its operation in the hands of a trusted Iraqi driver. In an exceptional memoir, Thanassis Cambanis reports how it all went wrong for Sa’ad al-Azawi — and for Iraq.
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.
Direction Nowhere
Forty years ago this month, Neil Young and Miles Davis shared a bill at a theater in New York City. Nate Chinen looks at two stars whose orbits passed tantalizingly close.
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.
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.
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.