Fiction

Mickey Mouse’s Bait Dogs
By Leah Edwards

Pregnant potcakes from Belize and Cuba, foster failures from Miami-Dade, puppies found in trash bins.

All Saints’ Mountain
By Olga Tokarczuk

I asked about the children we were to study: who were they, why were they to undergo the test, what was the purpose of our program? Though I also knew it wasn’t any of my business.

The Stunt
By Michael LaPointe

I can’t imagine where I’d be if they knew my version of what happened.

The Origin of Species
By Johanna Skibsrud

At first, it was just this hazy glow on the horizon, but then it got brighter and took on more of a definite shape. It was almost as if—it’s weird to say it, even now—it was looking for us.

In the Woods with a Dead Dog
By Michel Faber

It couldn’t happen without effort. Nothing happened without effort, except catastrophe.

Pharmakon
By Alix Hawley

You know what you want.

The View from the Top of the Stair
By E. Lily Yu

When her father died, her second thought was that now, she could build her stairs.

The Enormous Night
By Zan Romanoff

This is the first time in all eighteen years of her life that Grace has ever snuck out of her mother’s house.

Half Pipe
By Zoe Whittall

Now that strangers have seen me naked, I can move on to worrying about getting into college or my inevitable death.

With a Whimper
By Laura Legge

Even in the wildest bush, beasts sometimes huddle for warmth.

Moon Colonies
By Jess Arndt

“It reminded me of a dream I’d had where a shark circled my chest hungrily and I felt relieved.”