by N. Ryan Tucker “Train a Comin’” placed first in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2024 Fall Fiction Contest. I don’t remember makin’ the devil no damn deal. Musta bargained with him when I was a kid. Can’t call to mind much of them times anyway. I knew it weren’t no…
by Jesse Teller “Waiting for the Sun to Go Down” placed second in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2024 Fall Fiction Contest. There is a low hum. A bit of a hiss. Like that first few minutes on vinyl before the song starts. You can hear the song churning out low…
by Amy Midgett “See” placed third in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2024 Fall Fiction Contest. The 757 bucked and shuddered beneath their feet. Hank gripped Elizabeth’s hand and she buried her face in the crook of his neck and shoulder. With his free hand, he cupped the back of her…
by Jenel Alan “The Roller Coaster at the End of the World” placed fourth in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2024 Fall Fiction Contest. I have PhDs in three fields, including biochemistry, so I know the correct dosage to put in his apple juice. To get him away from his parents,…
by Megan Okonsky “The Five Stages of Grieving My Attention Span” placed fifth in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2024 Fall Fiction Contest. (Bloop.) Denial I blinked at the first bloop. Then I went back to my book. I scheduled one hour of peace at the coffee shop before going back…
by Andrea Roylance A cold lake filled with wilted leaves, ash, and broken branches from a toxic tree sits at the edge of my consciousness. The lake’s waters are as still as death. Although the surface mirrors a pretty scene, the depths are murky with ghosts of the past, and…
by Leonora Ross Winter can take its time here in the mountains. Last year, we had snow in June, and summer felt like an advertisement for an island vacation on the cover of a shiny brochure you wished you could but didn’t have money to go on. But when the…
by William Heath Beware the strange attractorthat bubbles in the pot,makes the smoke curl upfrom the butt in the ashtray.Have you wondered whythe weatherman so often getsit wrong, or the healthy heartbreaks into wild fibrillations? Chaos is a far cry frommere randomness. High above our headsa tempestuous ballerinaperforms upon a tightrope,she…
by Moriah Canida The window in my room is special. Not as in a stained glass or creative design kind of way, but a truly magical way. The things I see through it don’t always make sense, but the scenes are always vivid and clear, as if it’s really happening….
by Jasmine Janelle Royer She walks with her head suspended in tree canopies, never casting her eyes below the silver lining of the existence her God displays for her as shewakes to meet the sun, come morning.She is a brown angel glowing from within the deep base of a body sighing from strengthwhen…