Backstage Rider for an Off-Site AWP Reading

John Waddy BullionNovember 4, 2024

Dear Literary Event Coordinator(s), The following document is a rider containing various provisions to assure you of a smooth and professionally delivered of...

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Ghost Girl

Lori D’AngeloOctober 31, 2024

Sam hadn’t always been a ghost. Of course, she hadn’t. Like the rest of us, she’d once been fully real. But then, like Marty McFly’s sister in Back to the Futur...

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Reddit on a Stick

Eric FarrellOctober 29, 2024

There was a rumor that the old Hot Dog on a Stick was closing the weekend before Labor Day. Picture this, a young Vito  – that’s me, with older bro Nico, Mom an...

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Pink Chewing Gum

R.C. HerbergOctober 28, 2024

My 25 milligram edible gummy is just starting to hit when Jamie tells me he doesn’t want a relationship. He says he’s going to Chicago soon, on account of his a...

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Venutians Illinois

Anthony MartinOctober 25, 2024

It’s true about me, Mr. Kral. Masha pinged me from the deep, but I was drowning in a sublet near Waukegan Harbor. Drowning with distinction when the signal came...

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The Nature Lady and Those Weird Little Guys

Patrick BarbOctober 24, 2024

  Those weird little guys, they called her “Nature Lady,” because she talked to them about the flora and fauna in the woods around Camp Adventure. That ...

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Kiss from a Whale

Joshua VigilOctober 23, 2024

Finally, some whalers found me. Bobbing on a lone plank, stranded at sea. The large one who hauled me up smelled of fish and vinegar and when my forehead slippe...

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Bed Bugs Bust a Move

Bethany CutkompOctober 16, 2024

The honeybees find him in the night, worming through holes in the window screen, delivering messages through urgent movement atop his bedsheets. This fuzzy vari...

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Escuchamos

Lion SummerbellOctober 15, 2024

THIS is last week in the square of a village, there is a pink town hall and a pink library but it is better to imagine than to know which, at a peppering of tab...

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Squid Games

Lindsey Godfrey EcclesOctober 14, 2024

The first rule for a giant squid in trouble is to get the hell out, and fast. But I was never any good at following the rules. # I’ve jetted up from the de...

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Box

Andrew TranOctober 12, 2024

I needed a place to stay. I’d been having problems with my girlfriend, and now I had to move out. Rachel, my best friend, told me she had a spot available in he...

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The Totally Reasonable Rules to Follow while Renting our Cottage

Chris CorkerOctober 8, 2024

“Relaxing and Luxurious Lakeside Cottage” Entire Property, hosted by Agrippina   Welcome to Palatial Ease Cottage on Amanita Lake! This stylish pr...

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Missile of Sorts

Meghan ProulxOctober 2, 2024

I huffed it up the hill. Sweat stung at my eyeballs and my face was a hot blister. My next tour group, the 3:30 crowd, was waiting for me up at the top. I had f...

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Twelve-Step Reincarnation

David WilliamsonSeptember 27, 2024

Before Janis drowned, I told her I wanted to come back as an eagle after I died. To build a nest high in the mountains and to hover over lakes. Eagles mate for ...

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The Tattooed Horror

Josh WeissSeptember 24, 2024

So, you want to know the truth, eh? The truth behind my tattoo? No, not the one etched into my forearm. I know exactly the one you’re talking about, boychik. ...

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Martian Cow Rustlers

David StillwagonSeptember 22, 2024

“All right, Mr. Jenkins. Can you tell our viewers what happened last night on your farm?” Fred Jenkins, a long-time farmer in the rolling hills of Western Pe...

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Terror Child at the Execution Party

Joel Henry LittleSeptember 18, 2024

The tall people surrounded the snacks, talking to keep others from talking. The boy sat beside the birdcage with a blanket over it and waited for a gap in the m...

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The Unbearable Whiteness of Being

David LuntzSeptember 17, 2024

Uncle Kev says, “At the end of December a white fog rolls into Venice that fades away the days and calendars from memory.” Uncle Kev’s dead but speaks to me all...

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Unconventional Materials Challenge

Joelle KillianSeptember 16, 2024

The drag queens squeal as the bespectacled reality TV host saunters into the neon-pink workroom. “Hello-hello-hello!” The host flashes a Chicklet-white smile...

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We’re All Going to the Prison

William M. McIntoshSeptember 13, 2024

If I thought I needed the extra bus fare for my emotional baggage, I would have bought the extra seat. There’s a lot of us in here going to where the line ends,...

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The Amazon Fire TV

Jon DoughboySeptember 12, 2024

I wandered internal deserts for eons in search of an external friend until I found the Amazon Fire TV. Hello, hello, desperate to meet you. To hear you. And hea...

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Failure

Mallory SmartSeptember 11, 2024

It was once the tallest building in Chicago—part of a pair. 601 feet tall and someone is falling from the top of it. You think you know her. You recognize her. ...

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Somewhere Nearby Connecticut, There’s a Clan of Vampires and a Woman He May Never Know

Kirby WilsonSeptember 8, 2024

In this period of his life, he slept on an inflatable mattress patched together with duct tape because his toenails poked through the rubber. He has been unable...

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My Work History

Martha HipleySeptember 6, 2024

Everything in this part of the city used to be something else, especially the buildings, and all the new office complexes and shopping centers and clubs are rea...

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Reply Guy

Graham Robert ScottSeptember 4, 2024

You’re in the middle of— Hello? You awake yet? Let’s try again. You’re in the middle of a game. Potentially a lethal one. Hello? You heard me say lethal, ...

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Mary Magdalene Listens to Chappell Roan

Lori BarrettAugust 30, 2024

You know that feeling when you listen to an album and it feels specifically for you? I don’t often listen to popular music from the afterlife, but when I heard ...

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Hell is Real

Josh BarnettAugust 20, 2024

As I drive up I-71, it takes me a minute to realize the billboards have started speaking to me. And not speaking to me the way an old painting or a Tom Hanks mo...

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Slap Messenger

Adam StrausAugust 19, 2024

The summer after 10th grade I worked as a slap messenger. It was this novelty website I made in Computer Class where people would go online, fill out a form, se...

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Self-Portrait at Thirty-Three

Dan LeachAugust 14, 2024

I.   This was the night I lost my job, and you didn't have a job, and there was a fractious vibe at The Starlight, like someone was about to get kill...

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8-Ball 2.0

Will MusgroveAugust 13, 2024

“Do you struggle with predicting the future?” a production assistant says from behind the camera, reading me in. The deck of tarot cards sitting in front of me ...

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