Category: Short Fiction

Her Unwitting Accomplices

Paula R. Hilton

As the automatic doors swished open, my mother began her search. The grocery store’s bakery was on our immediate right. Mom zeroed in on her target, pushing her shopping cart toward a plain woman in a peacock blue trench. To keep up, my short legs moved double time. Mom’s high Read more

Paula R. Hilton

Paula R. Hilton explores the immediacy of memory and how our most important relationships define us. Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and has appeared in The Feminine Collective, The Sunlight Press, Writing In A Woman’s Voice, Dear Damsels, The Tulane Review, and elsewhere. Her novel, Little Miss Chaos, was selected as a Best Indie Teen Read by Kirkus, and her first poetry collection, At Any Given Second, received a Kirkus star. She holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans.

Perhaps

Lisa Witz

Perhaps she would drop a few ice cubes into her glass of wine, staying for a bit after picking up her grandson, my son, from basketball practice. I’d stop whatever I was doing – prepping dinner, or helping my daughter with homework – and we’d chat for a moment, her Read more

Lisa Witz

Lisa Witz grew up the youngest of nine children on a sprawling cattle and sheep farm north of San Francisco. She left the small town to feed her wanderlust, living in Japan, Spain and the Pacific Northwest. She now lives near San Diego with her husband and three children, and they often visit the farm to hike the trails of her childhood. Visit http://www.lisareginawitz.com for more of her writing.

Scar Tissue

Cate Carlyle

I cringe every time Dad touches her. He compulsively straightens the Blue Jays pin my brother attached to her favorite blouse, the yellow one I bought her in the States last summer. He rearranges her crossed hands, over then under, then back over again. Her fingers are chalky and stiff Read more

Cate Carlyle

Cate Carlyle is a librarian and the author of two young adult novels and a library reference book. Her short story “The Brothers” was shortlisted in the WFNS Nova Writes competition. Cate lives in Nova Scotia with her partner and supportive first-reader Bruce and their fur baby, Zoey.

Maybe It Wasn’t My Fault

Reagan Brooks

Lacey could tell something was off. “What’s wrong, Mom?” “Nothing, Honey. But we need to talk – all of us.” Her mother meant all of “the girls” She looked at her three daughters warily. “Something’s happened, and I don’t know how to tell you.” “What happened? Are grandma and grandpa Read more

Reagan Brooks

Reagan Brooks is a college student from Texas. She had a difficult upbringing and finds writing her experiences helpful for her healing process. She hopes her story can help others and bring peace to those that need it.

Blind Ambition

Ruth Edgett

If Tina wasn’t so damn hard, I probably wouldn’t be doing this, but even a dog gets tired of being kicked after a while. In a year and a half, I’ll be eighteen anyway, so cutting out early’s no big whoop. Wonder if she even knows I’m gone. The manager Read more

Ruth Edgett

Ruth Edgett is the author of "A Watch in the Night: The story of Nova Scotia's last light keeping family"(Nimbus, 2007) which is the story of her mother's family and their life as light keepers on a tiny island inn St.Georges Bay. Ruth's fiction and non-fiction are inspired by the people and places of Atlantic Canada. Born and raised on Prince Edward Island, Ruth now lives and writes in Southern Ontario.

When the Bomb Sounds

Sara Dutilly

My uncle has been sending me letters. He’s been telling me about his time in Vietnam. How, even though it was just a tiny percentage of his life, it is a time he never forgets. He says he’s a tormented artist. He says he’s tried to write about it. He’s Read more

Sara Dutilly

Sara Dutilly studied creative writing at High Point University and today she stays at home with her three children, writing and wrangling and finding countless surprises along both paths. Her work has appeared in r.k.v.ry., Quarterly Journal, Mothers Always Write, and PopSugar. A few years ago her husband purchased her a website for Mother's Day and she's been writing her mothering stories at www.haikuthedayaway.com.

After Dinner

Victoria Addesso

My twenty-year-old son, Billy, and his girlfriend, Alex, nineteen, cooked dinner for me tonight. Gemelli pasta in a cream sauce with mushrooms, zucchini, garlic and pecorino romano cheese. Delicious. It was late – 9pm. Billy had yelled up the stairs to his younger brother, Steven, when the food was ready, Read more

Victoria Addesso

Vicki Addesso has worked in various fields over the years, full-time and part-time. In between family life and bill-paying endeavors, she works at writing. Co-author of the collaborative memoir Still Here Thinking of You~A Second Chance With Our Mothers (Big Table Publishing, 2013), she has had work published in Gravel Magazine, Barren Magazine, The Writer, Sleet Magazine, Damselfly Press, Feminine Collective, and Tweetspeak Poetry. A personal essay is included in the anthology My Body My Words, edited by Loren Kleinman and Amye Archer. You can follow Vicki on Twitter @VickiAddesso.