Transmissions from the Baby Monitor by Sarah Gerkensmeyer

January 25, 2023

“You tell us death, and you tell us pain, and you tell us there are good things, too.”

Silhouette of woman running by water and city skyline

Before I Stop by Katie Kalahan

January 18, 2023

I see a woman running towards me at the farthest edge of the path between Jimi Hendrix and Sam Smith parks. She's light on her feet, but tense, taut, and I feel that she's familiar.

Eagle Beach by Maxwell Suzuki

January 4, 2023

There are echoes of a childhood and a boy I can just barely remember. There has been an ache in my stomach for me to return.

The blurred image of a subway racing down the tracks.

Fairy Tale by Sharmila Voorakkara

December 21, 2022

“The children stare into space. No one here knows what too much means.”

Image of an antique book open to a page of South America, on periphery a tea mug and a computer

Geography by Tita Ramirez

December 14, 2022

None of this was ever a problem before, but sitting there looking at that pee stick, it hit me: if I was going to have to explain the world to someone else, it was a huge problem. I had nine months to learn everything. More like eight, really.

Image of skeleton ribcage against bright turquoise background

Marie by Eliza Sullivan

December 14, 2022

Bones tell stories. They hold intangible memories.

Image of two people from the shoulders up, lying down wearing VR headsets and headphones, purple and blue lighting

OptiDream Third-Generation 3Gen Original Dream Machine 100+ Stimuli & More by Devon Halliday

December 7, 2022

but at some point in every dream I end up scraping my teeth out of my mouth

Image of a man's shadow, holding a phone, reflected against a white wall with two empty photo frames.

Ghosting by Sarp Sozdinler

November 30, 2022

I imagined his spidery fingers hovering over his phone all night, at once touching and not touching it like the soft spots of my body.

Image of two people's legs, one person in black tights and high heels and another beside them in floral pants and sneakers. There is gold confetti on the wood floor.

Movie Stubs by Sophia Veltfort

November 9, 2022

In the weeks leading up to my friend’s wedding, instead of studying for the GRE, I’d made mental tallies of people I dreaded but could reasonably expect to see in Poland.

Image of a red helium balloon heart against a white background. A white woman's arm holding it in frame.

A Longer and Slightly More Complicated History of Her Heart by Mary Jones

November 2, 2022

She thought she knew of everything that could happen to the human heart, it seemed most of it had happened already to her mother.

Image of a blue sky with a few clouds and an airplane directly above.

Delta by Dionne Irving

October 12, 2022

We didn’t have friends on board. We didn’t have friends of friends on board. And we hadn’t ever even been to Miami, or to Brazil. So we went about our day. We made coffee.

Image of a sail boat in the distant, surrounded by a gray, foggy ocean

Jack in Search of a Mother by Alison Kinney

October 12, 2022

Jack looked at his own two feet dangling over the giant's shoulder. He thought about how small he was next to the giant, beside the sea.

Shadow Work by Soramimi Hanarejima

October 5, 2022

After work, we meet in the park near your office to swap shadows.

Image of a white baby wrapped in a creme blanket, held against the chest of a person in a white sweater.

Early Days by Carol M. Quinn

September 28, 2022

Lisa will not sit down, will not shut her eyes any longer than it takes to blink, because when she does, she has learned, her muscles begin to release and the room lilts gently from one side to the other and she cannot trust her arms to keep hold of her baby.

Take a Ride in My Jag by Catherine Cort

May 18, 2022

Jags can be time-consuming. And then there is the problem of satisfying its animalistic nature. Especially since tonight is Friday night, and you are going out.

A Come to Jesus Moment in the Gynecologist’s Office by Frederica Morgan Davis

May 11, 2022

Did so many women come in with babies growing inside them that Jesus acknowledged that plural? Or was it just a nice Southern thing? Like the French “vous,” used in singular formal to show respect to elders?

Friends Forever by Mairéad Kiernan

May 4, 2022

The point is, I could die at any moment with two living parents who would choose some tacky, pink, heart-shaped granite headstone for my grave and write Beloved Daughter on it with the emblem of a cross or some other religious symbol above my name, and that is not happening.

What We Did to Hansen by David DeGusta

April 27, 2022

We started spending less time at the park, arriving home while sunlight was still on offer and confusing our parents. We paid more attention to who showed up in the park and who didn’t. Absences now felt like defections, lessening our numbers and making us vulnerable in a way that tightened our stomachs when we thought about Hansen.

De Domum by Melanie Conroy-Goldman

April 20, 2022

I know my house is a woman because she has a migrating trap door. I’m in the hallway. Whoops! I’m in the kitchen. I’m in the basement. Whoops! I’m in the attic. I can see the door’s outline if I pay attention and it’s possible to tiptoe very carefully around its edges, but it is easy to get distracted in the house.