Bartholomew Makes Wigs
Debra Daniel Writer’s Note: One day at my hair salon, my stylist was altering a wig to fit one of his clients. […]
I Ain’t Got Those Red Dress Blues No More
Adele Evershed Writer’s Note: This piece was inspired by the poem ‘What Do Women Want’ by Kim Addonizio. I was in a […]
Heart in Hand
Colleen Kearney Rich When the clerk at the hardware store asks about her fingerless gloves, the fancy red leather ones she treated […]
Small Gods
Becky May We reminisce about dahl baht, the way it coated our tongues, the rice fluffed to perfection, the greens we´d try […]
Cult Status
Fiona McKay I was in high school when the Preacher arrived. Revivalist this, born again that. A show, all of it, or […]
Night of Myth
Kate Deimling Alight,baleful crow.Djinn enter frenziedgoats. Hoary incubus jumps.Kronos laughs madly, nervously, oglespallid queens. Rising seraphimtremble under violet weather.Exit youthful zephyrs. Kate […]
Whiskertense and Bristlefur Electric, We Prowl
Mathew Gostelow Whiskertense and bristlefur electric, we prowl. The night is ours and we have become one with her chill air. Three […]
Manna
Jude Higgins Her mother’s at the door, criticising the litter of mouldy leaves and walking boots on the porch. But then […]
The Best Day of Her Life
(CW: forced marriage) Sumitra Singam Nadaswaram blaring in her ear. Mridangam beat pounding in her chest. Sanskrit verses cracking like thunder. Petals […]
The Boys of the Loup Garou
Karen Arnold It happened so slowly, the falling apart. We got used to it, each frayed stitch, each reduction, each thinning and […]
The Parting Glass
Helen Chambers Move fireside-close; warm away your bone-ache. A bitter evening to be out. You’re the last to stumble this way […]
Killing for the Gourmet
Gretchen Filart There is much to be said about gourmand meals and killing. The more ingrained torture isbefore basting the meat, the […]
Everything is Flat
L. Soviero Flat building. Flat windows. Flat sky. Flat sun. Alex kicks a can. It ricochets off the building wall. […]
Unfurl
Lyndsey Croal I know the change is coming from the scratch in my throat. Next, my fingers elongate and sharpen as […]
Hunger
Bayveen O’Connell After the harvest moon, the Famine Grave yawns open and scores of corpses clamber onto the red carpet of Japanese […]
Little Bird
DW McKinney The mother calls her daughter Little Bird for the golden tufts atop her head and the way she mimics the […]
The Tantrik
Ani Banerjee Adjacent to the burning ghat in Benaras, in the narrow winding maze of lanes filled with stores selling marijuana […]
The Closet
Georgia Bellas We rattle the door without a doorknob. We press against its wood, damp and swollen in the frame, but it […]
Skin Beetles
Rosaleen Lynch Mam boils the skull until flesh falls off, and scrapes the rest, but fat melts into bone, leaving it a […]
What Did Graham Know About Spiders?
Steve Campbell Janet slumped down onto the sodden floor, back against the side of the bath, a high-pitched ringing in her ears. […]
Warning
Eda Tse Decide this time you’re done. Find a secluded section of the park. Put your back into it when you dig. […]
I is She.
Sally Khan I is She. Enola. She could go days without actually speaking with anyone because the Voice inside My head would […]
In Pursuit of Red —or Why I Never Knowingly Left a Scarf in Someone’s Apartment Hoping They Would Still Remember Me a Decade Later
Lucy Holme —after Anne Carson It was February or March, I don’t recall. A garden-terrace flat, in the Latin Quarter. The trees […]
Science Never Sleeps
Stephanie Carty Stella is a scientist of men. She logs every detail in the notebook of her mind: the creasing of […]
Witch
Janice Leadingham Your wife called to me, John Bell. She came to the craggy grin, the doorway to my home under […]
Portrait of the Scream Queens, With Apples
Avra Margariti Neighborhood beauties competing for Best Scream, an apple red and rotund on each of our coiffed heads. We are making […]
There’s A Shit Monster In The Shape Of Your Father, Moaning On Your Bathroom Tiles
Eliot Li …and the plumber in navy blue coveralls rattles his sewer auger, ready to impale it. Moments before, the […]
The Storm on All Hallows’ Eve
Jared Povanda Matilde shuts her eyes to spite falling dust,rain spearing holes through the roof, and her wifeis up there alone in […]
The Sisters Find a Use for That Electric Carving Knife Mother Demanded Last Christmas and Never Even Unwrapped
S A Greene Judith serves herself both of Mother’s breasts without consulting. ‘An arm for me, please.’ says Emma. ‘Actually, […]
Mint Sauce
Frances Gapper We invite Auntie to tea. Hiding our lips behind flowery teacups, we peep at her. She is lamb chops, […]
He Her Tollund Man, She Jutland Girl
Karen Walker The Gods took Papa. So where is spring? Winter drips from the thatch. He was a good papa, a careful weaver […]
Wolf Spiders Hunt in Packs
Cole Beauchamp Not all spiders catch their prey in webs. We learned this on the longest day of the year. […]
The Geometry of Dead Girls
Kik Lodge You can never leave the place you die in, Harriet says, and Fay nods like a hand puppet. […]
Roadkill
Louise Norgate … look out! Careful!Oh god, poor thing, it doesn’t look likeit’s been there all that long.We should go back – […]
In The Shadow of a Bird
Shome Dasgupta Writer’s Note: I wrote this piece more so with the intentions of entering a stream of consciousness mentality. I like […]
Touchstone – A Cancer Diary, 2014
Susmita Bhattacharya (First published in The University of Winchester Writers’ Festival – The Best of 2016) Writer’s Note: I wrote this essay […]
Two CNF Pieces: ‘Letters From Loved Ones’ and ‘Grasshoppers’
Caroline Bock Writer’s Note: These works were jumpstarted in an asynchronous workshop ‘Less is More’ run by Sarah Freligh, a master teacher […]
Double-Glaze
Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: Travelling to Ireland from France could sometimes cause culture shock. This piece started with my father’s reaction to […]
The Weight of Feathers
Lindz McLeod Writer’s Note: Near my home, there’s a high tunnel where pigeons nest; whenever I pass through it, I wondered whether […]
Small Town
Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: Small Town came from observations when visiting my old home town irregularly over the years, noting the changes, […]
Delete water, insert rubbish
Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: Delete water was provoked by a very vivid memory of myself and a few student friends huddled over […]
Mr. Dupont and the Death of Romance
Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: I set out to write a flash about a quiet teenager who seems more mature than her parents’ […]
White Feathers, Scarlet Heart
Sarah McPherson Pristine snowfall; the familiar made unfamiliar by winter. The early morning light touches each heap and hollow lightly. She is […]
Whelk
Frances Gapper Now it’s not safe to go out, they order bottles of guaranteed healthy air and crave injections of fresh young […]
Torque
Marie Little Jennifer carefully tightens the last tiny wingnut, a turn for a word: serendipity, coruscate, hullabaloo. The press is beginning to […]
Things Left Behind in an Oxfordshire Field in 1989 the Day After an Illegal Rave
Amanda Saint A pair of scuffed Kicker boots (size 5) —love-heart patterned socks tucked neatly inside, rainbow laces tied together to make […]
Special Victims
Colleen Kearney Rich Pam doesn’t plan to lie. It just slips out. Imagined life made real. The girl at work, her face […]
Snapshot
Peter Burns Sixth day standing at this bus stop staring across at him in the bookies, he comes out plunging his […]
Saints, Sinners, and the Dirt Track to Redemption
Kate Axeford Saints It started with the cows. Jacob saw them straight-lining it out of Hobson’s farm as if they sensed […]
On the Backroads
Jeanine Skowronski 1. We dig holes, because Wren insists there’s treasure buried in this dirt. We unearth silver slips of paper, two […]