These pieces were originally published between March 17, 2026 and June 11, 2026.
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A Year in Review, Part IV
These pieces were originally published between March 17, 2026 and June 11, 2026.
A Year in Review, Part III
These pieces were originally published between December 4th 2025 and March 12th 2026. 2025 Fall Fiction Contest Winners Additional Fiction Selections
A Year in Review, Part II
These pieces were originally published between September 4th 2025 and November 30th 2025.
A Year in Review, Part 1
These pieces were originally published between May 22nd 2025 and August 21st 2025.
A Year in Review
We’ve had another spectacular year at Penmen Review. Over the past year, we’ve published 137 pieces from our general submissions folder and have celebrated our annual Fall Fiction Contest with five exceptional writers whose work conveyed strong originality and craft. We’ve also published several Spotlights from our Word for Word…
The Buzzards
by Ryland Louvierre It was six o’clock on an unseasonably warm Saturday evening in February. The birds had gone to their nests, replaced by bats that swooped low in the wood meadow, and Cleve rose stiffly from his position in the pecan tree. A grapefruit sun was setting, casting oblong bars of…
Behavior of Care
by Rebecca Ceurvels There is nothing for a bored A.I. except to reroute old pathways and trigger files at random. No one has come to the Graveyard to die in three hours, in which time Gravitas has run twenty thousand simulations of its memory cache and relived the dead. Here is a…
The Weight of Water
by Alexis Hula Mara learned the language of the river like others learn to read, gradually, by scraping the margins of sentences until the sense fused into her bones. The town had been constructed along the river’s shoulder, houses slouching like fatigued eavesdroppers, and each spring the river would reacquaint…
The Man Lied
by Jim Kelly “Electric heat,” the man said. “Electric baseboard heat is the way to go. Better, cleaner, and cheaper than wood or oil. Trust me on this. You will never pay more than fifty bucks a month to heat this place. Even in the coldest months of winter. You…
White Roses
by Phibby Venable There is a panic of loud voices and low growlsbut the child stays hiddenShe wears her red sweater the laundries have worn softShe is drenched with anxiety and wipes her sweaty handssoftly in the hair of her dollShe is wary of hands & hurt Hidden beneath the…