There are many ghosts floating through Mina Austin's โWalkโ (3,200 words, Post Road Magazine), but thematically that ghost is ๐๐๐๐๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐; how hard it is to establish it between people, never mind between people and animals. How hard it is to really ๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐.
@postroadmag.bsky.social
Link here:
In "Ancestral Milk" (in ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ฌ) Paige Kaptuch takes one womanโs struggle with pregnancy and childbirth after a cross-country move and elevates it, through a special brand of expository pyrotechnics, to a kind of time-travel-lite. To four-dimensional story telling.
โOpen for fiction submissionโ on 6/1:
๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก๐ฌ๐ก๐๐ซ๐๐ฌ is published four times a year: including a prose issue in the summer, and a special longform issue in the fall. Spring and summer issues are guest-edited by different writers of prominence.
word count limit: 6,500
Youโll remember writer ๐๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ข๐ฎ๐๐ข๐๐ from last weekโs Shoutout โVan Cleefโ in ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ง๐.
Her website ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐ง ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ gives you more to dig into, including her story collection โThe Knockers.โ Please consider subscribing to her newsletter.
Looking forward to more, Caroline!
Short Story Shoutout
David Foster Wallace: โthe most important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.โ
These realities are not talked about in โThe Fishless Cycle,โ but they are floating around all the characters.
What ๐๐ ๐โ๐ก said carries more weight than what is addressed directly.
โYouโre an unemployed grown man still living with his mother! Thatโs what you are! Youโve turned idleness into a bloody job description and expected us all to clap along.โ
The chatter in the pub dipped. Van Cleef didnโt move.
๐๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ผ๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฒ'๐ "๐๐๐ง ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐" ๐๐ง๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ค ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ก๐๐ซ๐:
A quick reminder of why we're here: ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ก๐๐ง ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ซ๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ฌ.
Hemingway, Carver, Cheever, Saunders, O'Connor, Chekhov - all fantastic. But new writers are bringing it every week, and we bring them to you.
Join us, won't you?
The first thing that will jump out at you about โ๐๐๐ง ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐โ (3,100 words) by Caroline Giudice in ๐๐๐๐, is its period-piece-ness. It feels like itโs trapped in the amber of some long-ago, while somehow remaining a romance tailored for today.
@mrbullbull.bsky.social @
Doing it the pioneer way.
freilly2020.substack.com
Published four times a year since 1971, Ploughshares accepts submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Big Shoutout to fellow PNW writer ๐๐ข๐ญ ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ - his short story โHorn of Plentyโ appears in the latest issue of ๐๐ข๐ง๐๐ก!
@kittrick.bsky.social @pinchjournal.bsky.social
More about Kitโs fantastic writing here: kittrick.co/writing
Themes in short stories are best deployed as apparitions. They float like ghosts through great works. We catch fleeting glimpses of them, just enough to feel their presence, but not so much that we feel the heavy hand of message.
Short Story Shoutout
Short Story Shoutout
Tales of the Hidden Hour. Within these pages, tales of small-town lives unfoldโfeaturing characters both ordinary and enigmatic: some married, some not; some young, some oldโeach bearing their own cro...
