Fairies
My sixth grade year, the swing set by my school stopped being fun. Before, it had been fourteen feet. At the top of your swing it felt like you were about to launch into legend. You didn’t want to smile … 
Afterword by Stephen Graham Jones
You never hit a story that’s only one genre, do you? Westerns tend to have some element of romance, horror uses comedy as pressure-release valve, fantasy’s nearly always got a few solid action sequences, science fiction and spy thrillers trade …
In the Shadow of the Sacred Hoop
Joe and Frank are enjoying a game of basketball, one on one. Usually, their father, Fenton Hardy, the famous detective joins them. But Fenton is in the house fixing a drink and yelling at the boys’ mother Laura. Shouts from …
Afternoon Swim
Danny’s waiting for me outside Lake Park, balancing a red Frisbee on the tip of his finger. His ten-speed leans against the fence. He’s dressed in cut-off jeans and a black Led Zep t-shirt, beach towel draped around his neck. …
Constructing “The People” – Realism through the Lens of Hemingway and Carver
“I teach American Literature.” This is my stock response whenever I am asked what I do for a living. Usually, having provided this rather generic job description, I am met with a set of, by now, predictable questions. “Well, what …
Holler
Tommy’s father built birdhouses; they were small, symmetrical things – usually unpainted. He intended to sell them or perhaps give them to the Boy Scouts, but they sat in the garage until they became gray and warped with rot. Before …
The Dinner
Lois was unpracticed in the art of spending money, particularly on herself, so she had bought one of the least expensive dresses in the store. She did this despite its unflattering silhouette, her dislike of its grotesquely modern aesthetics, and …
Breaking Realism: An Interview with Brian Evenson, Epistemological Terrorist
Author of fifteen books of fiction, most recently the story collection Fugue State, and the novella Baby Leg, winner of the O. Henry Award for his short story “Two Brothers,” the International Horror Guild Award for his story collection The …