For as long as I can remember, I’ve been in this suit, this overcoat of what you see, this visage of who you think I am. It slips sometimes and snags on things,...
In my Barbie dreams, the doors open for me right away, the hands of dozens of Kens balancing the heavy metal and glass on their pinky fingers. The other fingers...
A note on the desk said: How does that make you feel?
Terrible!
I ran!
The reception area was a giant billboard. It read: We'll bill your card on file. The...
You, kid who we pelted with six dozen eggs, may hate the memory of two carloads of punks egging you on Halloween night in 1996, but understand we had no choice....
There are many Petersburgs, each of them black and tasting of stone. The city sprawls in a tangled nervous system, twisted districts and zones crisscrossed by c...
The humidity of summer vacation filled our lungs like water balloons, so my friends and I decided to cool off with a flick, Cowboys & Aliens. When the credi...
Marcus locked the bathroom door—or tried to. It was an old and wobbly lock that failed to properly catch, which was really, really not helping since he definite...
I found a decent looking hole in the wall restaurant near the wide and beautiful Xiang River that bisects the city. I had just reconnected with long-lost cousin...
When a pair of ski-masked men walk into the country hospital, guns drawn and saying Do what we say and you won’t get hurt, nobody knows how to react at first. P...
We’re writing ghost stories together. It’s autofiction. We’re BFFs. Mostly started as YESNOGOODBYE but now she calls me bitch and we laugh until I weep into my ...
I don’t think it really hit home that I was moving out for good until the man came to fix my doorbell. This guy was a magician; he was on some real David Blaine...
“Hi, Glenda! I’m David. It’s so lovely to meet in person. It’s weird to only communicate over texting, right? I don’t feel like I know someone until I...
I can help. I’ve made nine thousand, just in America today, Marcus.
I know you’ve been shopping together for a decade. The wedding was overdue, based on how ...
A cloud went to a party. The cloud didn’t know anyone, so it just hovered awkwardly and nibbled puff pastries in the living room. A guy came up and introduced h...
What did it do to deserve this? There’s no explanation. Just the star itself, unadorned, accusatory, the sole record of any visitor’s presence. Did the reviewer...
First, you must have tried other food and been unfulfilled. If you’re looking to move quickly, an unseasoned casserole will do, or slightly burnt toast, in a pi...
I drive to Riverside City College to give Dr. Lamoreaux my Life Drawing I portfolio. I imagine her sitting in her office, the citron light shining on her face j...
I flop onto the couch, flip on the TV. Too early for RuPaul, so I click on a remake of Lost in Space, this one starring yours truly as The Robot, always waving ...
After the theater darkened, she leaned toward me and whispered, “You have a mercenary personality.”
On the drive back to her place, I couldn’t stop thinking ...
He appraised the stainless trinkets slinked atop her sidewalk blanket. She indexed the display. She explained to him the limits of leather. Various leathers, et...
Hammocked in your curls. Little dead humans, embalmed with nothing but shampoo, linseed oil conditioner. Even their teeth are cleaned with scalp-curing properti...
Featuring sixty-seven stories that span over a decade, Spinning to Mars dangles between the promise of a ride and the promise of home. The eighth collection fro...