NICK van OSDOL: Piggyback Ride

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

I gave my nephew a long piggyback ride. We chanted “It’s a new record!”

“Let’s tell the whole world,” I said.

He paused, then replied, “I don’t want to.”

He’s shy about his speech impediment. But I understand him perfectly.

“You’re right,” I said. “We already are the whole world.”

Nick van Osdol enjoys reading and writing prose and poetry. He is drawn to scenes of decay and rejuvenation. He also enjoys stick shift cars with no SIM cards. His writing is in Hobart Pulp, Citywide Lunch, Plague Circus Press, Dishsoap Quarterly, and several other places.

JOHN H. DROMEY: Occupational Hazard

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

“What makes you think Dave’s a pessimist?”

“The way he describes personal possessions. He has a tornado watch, a hurricane lantern, a doomsday clock, and a drop-chute to a fallout shelter with enough survivalist rations to last a decade.”

“What does he do for a living?”

“He’s an insurance actuary.”

John H. Dromey has had short fiction, humor, and poetry published in many different venues.

STORY OF THE MONTH: August 2026

News

The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.

The finalists for August were:

Tug of War by Trish Fegan
Sticky Fingers by Alyson Floyd
Leo Season by Sarah Sorenson
The Cache We Carry by Paul D’Arcy
Inheritance by Atif Nawaz
Teaching the youngest how to drive by Robb Lanum
Abyss by Alyson Floyd

The winner of the August 2026 Story of the Month is…

Inheritance

MUREALL HEBERT: Still Life in a Department Store’s Bracken

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

A woman and child lose one another under fluorescent bulbs. Scouring aisles, the mother trumpets alarm. Alone. Halved. Cleaved by her sudden emptiness. The child curls to a fiddlehead in the cave of an endcap. He hears his mother’s voice, but he’s a fern and not a lost boy anymore.

Mureall Hebert lives near Seattle, WA. Her writing has appeared in trampset, Hobart, Citron Review, matchbook, and elsewhere. Find her online at www.mureallhebert.com and @mureallhebert.bsky.social

LIAM MacDONALD: The Unequal Distribution of Invisible Weight

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

His mother-in-law wears PTSD like a crown. She regales anyone within earshot about leaving her government job after her coworkers were mean to her and collecting disability for years.

He never mentions it, but he has not set foot in Lower Manhattan in the twenty-five years since the towers fell.

A recovering lawyer, Liam MacDonald has seen some things and carried a few burdens. Some weigh more than others. Find him at liammacwrites.com.

MIKAILA NALBANTOVA: Cradle

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , ,

She couldn’t be angry with the brownies; they hadn’t known. This was simply what they did: tidying, mending, completing the tiny cap meant for a babe born in winter. They must’ve knitted by firelight, the hearth smoldering through the night, fueled by wood scraps from the forever empty cradle.

Mikaila Nalbantova is a speculative fiction writer with a focus on the epic, the folkloric, and the Classical. Her work has appeared on Apex Book Company and in Club Plum, Tension Literary, and others. You can find more of her work through linktr.ee/mikaila.nalbantova.

JEFFREY REEVES: Missing

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

He kept dreaming about his leg. A shark in the surf; a sniper in Fallujah; drag racing in the desert. Always something different.

The room was private, but it was hard to sleep; hospitals are filled with ambient noise.

He hoped the oncologist would have good news in the morning.

Jeffrey Reeves is a former communications director living in Tennessee. He loves good books, good dogs, and good beer.

TERRI YANNETTI: Drama in the Sky

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

In dark of night, when the village is quilted in sleep, constellations spin tales as they move overhead. Two hounds, taut bodies quivering, are keen to hunt; while fleeing sisters clutch hands or tug arms, frantic to escape impending harm. Slumbering folk are in another realm. Completely unaware.

Terri Yannetti is a Connecticut-based newspaper writer. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Star*Line, Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and 3rd Wednesday.

ASHLEY HOLLOWAY: A Lot to Chew On

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

It started with a nibble at the corner of the page. Testing the shape of each letter on her tongue, the nibble grew to a bite. First a New Yorker, then Tolstoy, and before she knew it, she’d devoured Britannica’s 32. One could say she’d developed an appetite for discovery.

Ashley Holloway writes from her kitchen in Calgary, AB.