by Haley M. Forté It all began with a hummingbird feeder that hung from a maple tree. Watching the buzzing birds flit from perch to perch as the emerald leaves faded to their autumnal states was how Little Emilia wished to spend her mornings. Mother was always busy, and Father…
by Amanda Valerie Judd a poem is an ocean full of depths and reefsfilled with sharks and sailors and seaweedfilled with plastic and whale spermwhipping up a tidal wave and a hurricanea poem is an ocean working for industriesa poem is an ocean losing its relevance as a living thinga…
by Gabe Converse “Dark Water” placed second in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2023 Fall Fiction Contest. The pond behind the old house is full of leaves and scummy water. It hasn’t been touched for months. Louis comes to it sometimes in the early morning, his feet bare and damp and…
by R.E. Bunch “Sleeping Beauty” placed third in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2023 Fall Fiction Contest. “I’m dying,” She croaked. The sing-song in her voice was strangled out in a hoarse wheeze. “It’s the flu,” The back of my hand rested on her forehead. Her hair was matted to her…
by Ness Wheeler “Beasts” placed fourth in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2023 Fall Fiction Contest. The long winter had forced every creature to be bold in how they got their nourishment, and few were as bold as I had been to keep my brood fed. At midnight, every ten sunsets,…
by Mackenzie Bodily “Rat-a-Tat” placed fifth in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2023 Fall Fiction Contest. Marlyle watched the words “BEACON ACTIVE” slide over the walls of his one-man cruiser. The cabin was dark, illuminated only by the stars outside the window and those words projected in bright red by his…
by Brittney Cray In the small, picturesque town of Cresthaven, a shadow loomed beneath the façade of tranquility. It was a place where creativity flourished, where artists found solace in their craft, and where the written word held an esteemed place in the hearts of its inhabitants. But amidst the…
by S.E. Denny Fri, Apr 20, 10:52 AM (20 minutes ago) Dear Archer, When we first started this project, it was just you and me standing around your parent’s garage playing at being engineers. All the greats start that way: Bill Gates and Allen, Jobs, Wozniak, and Wayne. There must…
by Jess Earl Mama told me that thunder is just the sound of angels bowling. The angel outside my window doesn’t have hands but maybe it just can’t bowl, like how Katie can’t eat peanut butter. The angel doesn’t look like the ones in Mama’s paintings; it looks like a…
by Joshua Snyder One thinks, usually, that with effort comes reward. Duke and Lian expected a reward to befall them after their first summer, but success was not instantaneous. The reward for Duke and Lian, as it was with most people of the nation, was financial. They hoped and wished…