Literary short stories by established and emerging writers. Laura van den Berg Antarctica "You want to know the truth?" Luiz said. "Your brother was a beaker." "A what?" "A beaker. A scientist who can't get along with others." Joseph O'Malley The Manly Man's Guide to Virtue "I'm not some... Hallmark card up here spouting easy nostrums for your benefit. You're all ugly, too. We're all ugly. But we each have a tiny part of us where beauty and love live. Find it." Tom Kealey The Lost Brother I went and checked my brother out. He was dripping wet, and in his face I could see my mom. His hair was all short, stuck to his head. "Are you going to hit me?" he said. "I'm thinking it." Michael Deagler Etymology My dad said Jones was a good name because it makes you like everyone else. I'm feeling very Jones right now. This whole alley is feeling very Jones. Louis Gallo Stooges in Paradise But somewhere along the genomic line, worry and anxiety and foreboding tainted our ganglia cells. We co-exist in low grade panic most of the time, which occasionally accrues and explodes into full blown hysteria. Kim Brooks Year's Time He couldn't move. He could barely swallow. He couldn't remember what it was that had once made him believe in God, or in himself, or in anything at all. Aja Gabel In the Time of Adonis I'm always shocked at the boldness of my friends' mothers. My own mother, too. It's as if they've forgotten what embarrassment is, in the sameness of their family lives. Or maybe they want revenge, on the embarrassment wrought by their own mothers. Karen Brown Georgetown But now she remembered those weeks of bliss, the baby at her breast, the smell of her own milk on the sheets, the books on how to bathe, and feed, and tend spread out on the bed, the Mystery Train's passing at night, its plaintive whistle, its flash of brightness and hope. Stefani Nellen Men in Pink Tutus