Our Last Night (tw: abuse)
Travis Cravey Editor’s note: I am drawn to Travis’s writing because his stories are honest and memorable. He features characters the reader […]
Between The Nail and The Skin
Hema Nataraju Editorial note from Janus Literary reader, Myna Chang, who asked Hema to submit her work: I love the way humor […]
Lost Property
Lynda Cowles 13:44 The last train leaves the station. Rails hiss. Cables buzz. Pigeons flap then float back down. On the platform, […]
Accommodation
Kim Murdock Her husband worked late and her daughter was made of clothes and music so Miranda decided to arrange the calendar […]
Speech and Language Milestones
Kathryn Aldridge-Morris Between 0-6 months babies should coo, begin babbling and mimic sounds Heart rate dipping, something about the umbilical cord around […]
Sunshine Sugar
Amy Stone I smile. I can hear those paws in the snow, padding over to where I stand. Sure enough, he’s at […]
Sweet, Sour, Bitter, Salt
Fiona J. Mackintosh In the crouch of twilight, he hums a single tuneless note under the droop of the rhododendrons. From beyond […]
Little Miss Buford
Edie Meade I spend a lot of time on the floor behind the deli counter at Buford’s Grocery, watching the top of […]
Go-Go
Marie Gethins He shouted, ‘What the hell?’ filling his boot with beer as I headed towards the exit A first date at […]
Trent Lock
Rachael Smart The river is black and fast legging it. High up in the bones of the trees, spring comes, pinkly, and […]
I Don’t Want Dentures
Anika Carpenter I’m saving for implants like delft pottery, porcelain painted with windmills and flowers; teeth I’ll show off at the Kings […]
A Paranormal Dialogue
(CW/TW: abuse) Constance Malloy He’s dead. Frozen in time. Etched forever in charcoal, posing with his arm on a chair back. But […]
Halo
Meagan Johanson Your mother was in love with you. Enchanted—everyone was, she says, pulling the hair color box from the bag. Those […]
Pam’s Pantry
Shawn Van Horn I read that they’re finally tearing it down. It has always been there, way before I moved here, […]
Biblion
Shawn Van Horn I’ve broken up with the world. Words are my new mistress. You’re my way out of here. Doors open […]
Vanitas
Jared Beloff Stare hard enough and still edges will followthe lines of your eyes as you move away,a burst of color revealing […]
Matisse’s Bouquet de Fleurs pour le Quatorze Juillet, 1919
Jared Beloff That summer pink flowers gave the least promise,their heads bowed down out of the vase’s slender rimrevealing green stalks shivering […]
The Man in the Moon
Joel LeBlanc The man in the moon sat down on my bed and started smoking a twisted cigarette between yellowing teeth and […]
The Business of Witches
Joel LeBlanc The business of witches is one of harvesting truths like plants of predicting babies and midwifing divorces, taking midnight phone […]
Horseshoe Crabs
Joel LeBlanc I opened my mouth to say something sweet, but you may notice the briny sea that lives beneath my throat, […]
Lesson in Survival
Jamy Bond I’d lost my lover to heroin: lips like small blue balloons, skin like frosted glass. I needed a new life. […]
every time we think of her
Christina Kapp she held an orange / probed her thumb / with enough force / to wrench skin / from flesh / […]
The Muse
Simon Lee-Price My dog takes no interest in other dogs or bones. But if I have to write poetry he sits in […]
When the Scarves Fell
Katie Piper Grandad sat in the chair he always retired to after Sunday dinner. It had slender, polished arms and his […]
Seeds
Jolene McIlwain My wife leans into her pappy―Macon, she said yesterday―in this photo we found folded in a hankie in a […]
Hay Fever
Rebecca Bailey Rude as dandelion seeds, yet you still grow, The dock leaf to my thistle counterpart. For years I reaped, could […]
The Conifer and the North Wind
Geraldine Clarkson He gave me a gift of needles bound round in banana leaves, fragrant, folded in coconut wood. He came to […]
Windows Explorer Cannot Process This Request
Philip Charter Are you sure you want to reopen this application? [Yes] X […]
Sturdiness
James Garza Q: is there something erotic about destroying the environment? A: yes we roll up […]
Consumed
Sarah Green Gamber Sally looked from the cluttered sink to the window ledge where her sister’s diamond ring sat in a soap-dish. […]
The Witch Who Walked The Shore (1st Place)
Gaynor Jones Your mother used to tell you stories about the witch who walked the shore. A gnarled, mangled woman with mossy […]
Interview with Gaynor Jones, First Place Winner
Interview by Sudha Balagopal The witch in your story is a powerful, albeit unseen, character. How did the idea of a witch […]
Saudade (2nd Place)
Philip Charter When Richie McManus lost his hand in the hydraulic winch, he said he screamed like a banshee, but the North […]
Interview with Philip Charter, Second Place Winner
Interview by Neil Clark Saudade, the concept, really got us editors gabbing away and going on all sorts of tangents when we […]
Lyrics For a Life at Sea (3rd Place)
Bayveen O’Connell Manifest. Dad is the captain of my imagination. I’m from coastal people who say the sea is a gateway to […]
Interview with Bayveen O’Connell, Third Place Winner
Interview by Edward Bassett Why do flash and microfiction appeal to you as narrative forms? I love paring stories back to their […]
Seven Tears (shortlisted)
Nuala O’Connor To call the merrow-man to the shore, you must shed seven drops of eye-brine into the sea. This is what […]
All the Broken Things (shortlisted)
Melissa Bowers VII. Afterward, every beach is vacant. Our children still race for the sand, rip at the fluttering caution tape, ignore […]
A Hole in the Wing (shortlisted)
Ian O’Brien The slowboat heaved on the black ocean. The weather seemed to have followed her from Dublin, lashing the deck, the […]
An Aversion to Popular Amusements (shortlisted – CW: SUICIDE)
J.L. Willetts It’s not my first time. There was the time I tried to hang myself but got it wrong and spent […]
Origami Wars (shortlisted)
Amy Barnes My father sleeps skeleton-folded in a closet box. His face is pressed against his knees, a jumble of paper bones […]
Leviathan (shortlisted)
Sutton Strother In her last life, your mother was a whale. She makes no secret of it, so you grow up carrying […]
A Baby Born En Caul Can Never Drown (shortlisted)
Sara Hills 1. En caul babies are as rare as giant squid and underwater cairns. En caul means born inside the amniotic […]
Last Boat
Ed Barnfield “You have ancestors. Remember them, their names. The Moken, the Sama-Bajau. Lives before yours, expended on the water. Follow their […]
Thirst
Lorraine Thomson Alabama, Alaska, Arizona. Ever been thirsty? I’m talking about a thirst as deep as the ocean. A thirst like that […]
Two Tusks
Katie Oliver Being a narwhal with two tusks sounds fun, doesn’t it? Special. That’s what I thought too, once. Granted, it’s better […]
Flint’s Left-behind Girl
Jess Moody “I know an island.” The words that saved the lips that spoke them. The Captain had no time for my […]
Sea Mother
Jason John Kahler The oars broke the water as the morning sun broke the horizon. The first hours of the summer solstice […]
Put Weed in the Drawing Wave
Kate MacCarthy On Maundy Thursday in 1911, Ruaridh waded out waist deep into the water. The Atlantic was a glaucous grey-green in the […]
Amelie
Lauren Foregger This house is more like a ship. If it weren’t for the chimneys and the pitched roof, I’d consider calling […]