Flash No. 22 – Marcelo Castro Salinas
I see the man’s face on the back wall of the shower. Empty-minded, I stare as the water splashes on the crown of my head. Continue reading Flash No. 22 – Marcelo Castro Salinas
Tag: Flash fiction
Stories No. 93 – Josh Dale
Ten minutes had passed since Otto’s ‘be right out’ text came in. The sun was getting low, and the last family had already scooped their children up to go eat dinner. Continue reading Stories No. 93 – Josh Dale
Stories No. 92 – Heidi Kasa
The baby, on entering the world, already trails her ghost. If it were visible to humans, the ghost would look like a dark puff of smoke leaking from the mother writhing on the bed. Continue reading Stories No. 92 – Heidi Kasa
Flash No. 21 – Nayt Rundquist
Nayt Rundquist (they/them) is the Managing Editor of New Rivers Press and teaches publishing, creative writing, and literature courses at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Their writing can be found in The Citron Review, X-R-A-Y Lit Mag, Up North Lit, Etchings, and anthologized in Unbound: Composing Home. They live just outside of space and time with their artist-jeweler wife and their fifth-dimensional dogs. Continue reading Flash No. 21 – Nayt Rundquist
Stories No. 91 – Kim Farleigh
Kim Farleigh has worked for NGO’s in Greece, Kosovo, Iraq, Palestine and Macedonia. He takes risks to get the experience necessary for writing. He also likes painting, art, bullfighting, photography and architecture, which might explain why this Australian lives in Madrid. Continue reading Stories No. 91 – Kim Farleigh
Flash No. 20 – Anna Stolley Persky
Anna Stolley Persky, a lawyer and award-winning journalist, lives in Northern Virginia. She’s pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at George Mason University. Her fiction has been published in Mystery Tribune, The Satirist, Bright Flash Literary Review, and The Plentitudes. Her poetry has been published in the Washington Writers’ Publishing House, Sad Girls Club Literary Blog, and The Closed Eye Open. Her creative nonfiction has been published in Pithead Chapel. Continue reading Flash No. 20 – Anna Stolley Persky
Flash No. 19 -Catherine Martinez Torigian
Catherine Martinez Torigian (she/her/hers) is a native of Brooklyn, NY, where she lives with her husband, teenage daughter, and mini-dachshund Olivier. She began writing fiction after earning a Ph.D. in Classics at Brown University and has taught Latin and ancient Greek in four of the five boroughs of New York City. Her fiction has appeared in Bellowing Ark and Digging Through The Fat. Continue reading Flash No. 19 -Catherine Martinez Torigian
Stories No. 87 – T. B. Grennan
And then, slow as you like, Fernando reaches back and peels his cheeks apart. Staring over one shoulder, his lips wet from kissing, his hair still perfect despite all that rolling around.
#Erotica Continue reading Stories No. 87 – T. B. Grennan
Stories No. 86 – John Francis Istel
“How many candles do you see? Mother? How many? Can you see how many? Sit up. It’s your daughter Eve. Count, Mother. There are 69.” Continue reading Stories No. 86 – John Francis Istel
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Stories No. 85 – Mario Duarte
“Monkeys, time to go!” Papi yells in his firm but gravelly voice. I lag behind at the end of the K-Mart checkout counter, eyeing the Mars candy bars. Aleta, my younger sister, kicks my heels. I trudge forward almost bumping into a white woman pushing a cart who suddenly stops after hearing Papi. Her lips stretch into a worldwide oval, ruby red lipstick smeared on her cigarette-stained teeth. Continue reading Stories No. 85 – Mario Duarte
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Stories No. 84 – C. Adán Cabrera
Lorenzo Rivas stirred a seventh packet of sugar into his coffee. He wondered how much of his twelve-minute break he’d spent staring at the barista’s arm. Continue reading Stories No. 84 – C. Adán Cabrera
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Flash No. 16 – Taylor V. Card
One day (which we must all understand to mean many years ago now) a girl in her mother’s kitchen cuts a lock of her shiny hair, sets it in resin, and promises to live forever. When she is ninety-three and dying, she calls grey loved ones into the room to give these instructions: Continue reading Flash No. 16 – Taylor V. Card
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Flash No. 15 – Peter Gregg Slater
A Tale of Two Maps By Peter Gregg Slater Knowing how I love maps, the owner of a bookstore in Washington, D.C. brought out two for me to look over during a 2019 visit. The first, a world map from 1578, displayed the surrealistic continents and islands characteristic of the period’s cartography. Tiny ships bravely sailed its seas, a few ominously heading towards waters marked: … Continue reading Flash No. 15 – Peter Gregg Slater
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Flash No. 14 – Katie Mauro Zeigler
Stroke
By Katie Mauro Zeigler
If I could talk, I would tell you that I used to have sex with the windows open and the moonlight and a man’s hands at the small of my back. I would tell you how it felt to bring a baby into the world and how my first period came at twelve. Continue reading Flash No. 14 – Katie Mauro Zeigler
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Flash No. 13 – Peter F. Crowley
Fomorians By Peter F. Crowley You’re a piss reminder of an everlasting hotel. She spoke in a fiery tone. The man waddled side-to-side and began patting a penguin. He glanced to a chalkboard behind the penguin, where were written the words: We’ve broken glass, crushed marigold eyes, dethroned coughing cathedrals, driven Zambonis over subterranean rinks, planted flowers that scratch out esophagi – and now … Continue reading Flash No. 13 – Peter F. Crowley
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Flash No. 12 – Gary Singh
Reunited in the Fourth House By Gary Singh After leaving the BART station, I visit my Berkeley astrologer at her spooky wooden house near Rose and Milvia, where paint-peeled steps take me to a porch milieu of hanging plants, ancient wicker sectionals, and apathetic cats. Soon enough, the door opens, revealing those same clear eyes of a clairvoyant nature I remember from morning Tarot … Continue reading Flash No. 12 – Gary Singh
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Flash No. 11 – Benjamin Davis
Slow Motion Man By Benjamin Davis His name was Eam. Reality shot him in slow motion. He worked in Spain, Salamanca, a bar called ‘El Submarino,’ the second bar, up the stairs. When he snapped open a beer, it took a minute. When he mixed a drink, it took ten. But, people waited, people watched. I waited. I watched. His eyes found me; eyes … Continue reading Flash No. 11 – Benjamin Davis
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Flash No. 10 – Soramimi Hanarejima
Toward Non-Volatile Memory By Soramimi Hanarejima Once again, you take us on “a short detour to see a memory”—meaning we’re going to visit some event in your past. So, I take a nap. To give you some privacy and get some respite from the strain time travel subjects the body to. I recline the time machine’s co-pilot seat (really more of a glorified passenger … Continue reading Flash No. 10 – Soramimi Hanarejima
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Flash No. 9 – Catherine Martinez Torigian
Drag Racing By Catherine Martinez Torigian The last time I heard that sound I was a girl of fifteen, give or take a year. But it was only this morning that I realized it what it was, like a flash of heat lightning on a summer’s day, baffling until the thunder came. A man and woman from the new building on the corner walked … Continue reading Flash No. 9 – Catherine Martinez Torigian
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Flash No. 8 – Ben Umayam
Kapre Down Under By Ben Umayam Aspen trees proliferate primarily through root sprouts. Whole colonies can be traced to one gargantuan underground sprout. The colonies can extend from the Colorado Rockies to the Canadian ones. Aspen trees are like clones. They share identical characteristics from the single root structure. When they die, it’s almost like they don’t, another tree sprouts from the massive underground formation. … Continue reading Flash No. 8 – Ben Umayam
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Flash No. 7 – David Joseph
Morning Sun By David Joseph I remember the first time I saw “Morning Sun” by Edward Hopper. I was on a school trip from our high school in Cleveland. It was only a two hour drive down to the Columbus Museum of Art and, truth be told, I was more interested in spending the afternoon making out with my boyfriend than staring at art. Museums … Continue reading Flash No. 7 – David Joseph
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Flash No. 6 – John Nicholson
The Missing Years By John Nicholson The engine idles as a wounded soldier recovers on the ground, holding his abdomen. Another soldier leans against the car. The smoke from his cigarette vanishes into the snowy canopy. The wounded man chokes as he recounts what happened to him. I. A Roadway in the Woods “It was just the two of us. I couldn’t.” The standing soldier … Continue reading Flash No. 6 – John Nicholson
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Flash No. 5 – Lucía Orellana Damacela
Brief Encounter By Lucía Orellana Damacela It’s dark under the house, the smell of the sea —less than one mile downhill— expands my nostrils like desert flowers. From this underbelly, this rocky refuge, as I pass by, a sudden shimmer calls me in. I am wearing white cotton socks and plastic sandals that screech as I walk. Two small green-yellow lights are suspended in front … Continue reading Flash No. 5 – Lucía Orellana Damacela
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Flash No. 4 – Elizabeth Kirschner
The End Which Envelopes the End, a Bramble, a Rose By Elizabeth Kirschner Lonely, like a coffee mug on the shelf, I slow roll into the empty spot on the bed where we shed the best skin of our lives. We were a thing of beauty, weren’t we? A thing of beauty, us, this, before that man—not you!—shoved my face into the weeds. I can … Continue reading Flash No. 4 – Elizabeth Kirschner
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Flash No. 3 – Christine Kendall
A Gift By Christine Kendall Lourdes sat, thirsty, in her son’s old Mercedes sandwiched between delivery vans on East Seventy-Ninth Street. She studied the license plates of passing cars; all local—New York. “I’ll only be a minute, Mama.” That’s what he’d said before taking his tools and disappearing into one of the limestone apartment buildings. Lourdes smoothed her blouse at the neck and watched a … Continue reading Flash No. 3 – Christine Kendall
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Flash No. 2 – Ana Hein
Conversation By Ana Hein It is dark when they talk. “You don’t have to do th–” “–I know.” “Okay… Maybe some other–” “–It’s alright.” “But–” “–Trust me.” “I do, but–” “–Aren’t you happy?” “I am, b–” “–Then what’s the problem?” “I’m not really su–” “–I think you’re going to like this.” “You–” “–Come on, I know what I’m doing.” “That’s not–” “–It’s not a big … Continue reading Flash No. 2 – Ana Hein
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Flash No. 1 – Rachel Werner
Brown Girl Blues By Rachel Werner “Yes. I cut myself.” “And NO, I am not white.” “But YES, my mother is.” These sentences I have said aloud. But the monologue I’ve pieced together for my own ears is: Everybody is a little bit crazy. So that’s WHY I am ‘crazy.’ Being alive is h-a-r-d; ‘though if I was walking around pretending like it wasn’t, … Continue reading Flash No. 1 – Rachel Werner
Living in the Masked Age – April 2020
We’ve been quarantined since March 13th. Week one, we were hopeful. We began our second round of poetry submission readings. We read and continue reading over 125 (as of today, that number is over 200) poetry submissions, that’s about 300 (600) poems. So far, the caliber and generosity of the poets who submitted work to us have lifted our spirits and have made our quarantine … Continue reading Living in the Masked Age – April 2020
Digging Through No. 3
Our third reading event in The Red Room at KGB Bar on March 10, 2020, was an unforgettable soirée. A day before Coronavirus COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, we hosted a sweet lit-loving and respectful crowd in The Red Room at KGB Bar. In an effort to keep everyone safe, we tried our best to avoid hugs and kisses, our bartender wore rubber gloves, glassware … Continue reading Digging Through No. 3
Digging Through No. 2
Our second reading event in The Red Room at KGB Bar on February 11, 2020 was an uproarious affair. It was a packed house and the standing room only audience was in very high spirits. The night began with a lyrical series of family poetic portraits by Rachel Horowitz, followed by a chilling and poignant story by Dororthy Barnhouse, and ending our first act was … Continue reading Digging Through No. 2
Digging Through No.1
We launched our new monthly reading series in The Red Room at KGB Bar on January 14, 2020. It was a cool, rainy evening and many of our friends were there to celebrate the works of Paul Beckman, Tamar Eisenman, JP Infante, Christine Kendall, Hadley Moore, and Joanna C. Valente. All our readers gave absolutely stellar performances. As a special treat Tamar Eisenman performed three … Continue reading Digging Through No.1
Stories No. 83 – Bobbi Steele
Xenophobia By Bobbi Steele I tried not to look at the mirror in front of me, but it was drawing me in. The tugging on my eyes pulled them further up from the sink, to the faucet and finally to the edge of the mirror. There were lint and dust covering the sink in the back, and I used my finger to slowly push it … Continue reading Stories No. 83 – Bobbi Steele
Stories No. 82 – Amber Baird
The Mattress By Amber Baird Samantha told him about the Russians. Her parents told her not to, of course, but she had to tell someone, and Charlie was her best friend. He sat beside her, under the tree in her backyard, and squinted at her through the sun filtering through the leaves. The remains from their picnic lunch were scattered around them — empty store-brand … Continue reading Stories No. 82 – Amber Baird
Stories No. 81 – Gary Singh
Voodoo By Gary Singh Slim occupies a vinyl bar stool, accompanied by a personalized chalice with hoppy German lager direct from the tanks downstairs. His name is carved onto the side of the mug. Camille’s alto voice, a younger, more dusty version of Edith Piaf, floats in like counterpoint to the chaos of sports on nine televisions. She emerges from the kitchen right when Slim … Continue reading Stories No. 81 – Gary Singh
Stories No. 80 – Victoria Giang
Ghost Voice By Victoria Giang They called it the ghost voice because of the way it crackled and warbled into a piercingly high register. It was a voice to captivate and bind the listener. Ros had it. “Once I fed a flower only music,” she confessed to Eung, her manager, confidante, and lover. Likewise, he slaked her thirst with a stream of abuse so endless … Continue reading Stories No. 80 – Victoria Giang
Stories No. 79 – Lee Matthew Goldberg
Join Us By Lee Matthew Goldberg Rockabilly music about the Holy Ghost pumps through the windows of the Salvation Gateway Fellowship Church, a small, red shack with a giant neon cross on the roof, its buzzy light flickering in the dawn. Nestled between two deflated hills in the Missouri Ozarks, this wonky, stitched-together building is the only beacon for miles. The surrounding landscape provides enough … Continue reading Stories No. 79 – Lee Matthew Goldberg
Stories No. 78 – William Lemon
Inconvenienced by Death By William Lemon The guests poured into the hotel pool dressed in robes, bathing suits underneath their fake, downy fur. The children did not bother with such pretense. They wore as little as possible, unafraid of cancer or the judging eyes of their peers. I joined the procession, tie still about my neck. Near the entrance to the pool, a cry from … Continue reading Stories No. 78 – William Lemon
Stories No. 77 – Paul Beckman
Smell You Later By Paul Beckman The Sunday of my sixth birthday I was waiting on the stoop for my father to pick me up. Usually he’d take both my older brother and me together on his monthly pickups but not on birthday months. He wanted those to be special and memorable. That Sunday turned out to be memorable but not special. I sat on … Continue reading Stories No. 77 – Paul Beckman
Stories No. 76 – Lucy Zhang
Orion By Lucy Zhang The first room to the left on the second floor was my brother’s room. Four pieces of tape held a poster of NGC 2024, the star-forming region—ribbons of cloud and smoke, specks of light that penetrated greys and blacks which, instead of obscured, conjured an inexplicable hope to where stars glimmered, mysticism to where they did not. Constellation Orion hung on … Continue reading Stories No. 76 – Lucy Zhang
Stories No. 75 – Kathryn Ordiway
Saturday Siren By Kathryn Ordiway ‘I mean, the hotter the weather, the more people murder,’ your husband says as he wades waist-deep in the murky water. ‘Serial killers and Kansas, you know?’ You have only your feet in the lake, legs stretched long from your place on a blanket because the color—the twinges of red and brown and earthy green—disgusts and concerns you. This is … Continue reading Stories No. 75 – Kathryn Ordiway
Stories No. 74 – M. DeVoe Talley
Reeled In By M. Devoe Talley I saw you then in the summer from the promenade of that county fair as you lay on your back in the near grass and I wandered with girlfriends I barely knew. The late low sun dazzled your tangle of blond hair, and a mustache made you look older, closer to twenty-eight—which was good. Demigods of a lesser mythology, … Continue reading Stories No. 74 – M. DeVoe Talley
Stories No. 73 – Christina Rosso
What Happens When the Ride Stops By Christina Rosso The wave curled, a claw digging into flesh. My tiny body thrashed in the ocean, the pressure of the wave on my neck and shoulders like a thousand bricks. Saltwater bled from my nose and throat. It was like being on the tilt-a-whirl at the Malvern Fair. I would ride it until I was hunched over, … Continue reading Stories No. 73 – Christina Rosso
Volume 6 of Digging, Calls for Submissions, & More
Volume 6 of Digging is halfway done! Much thanks to all our 2019 contributors so far: (nonfiction) Andrew Rihn and Simona Zaretsky; (poetry) henry 7. reneau, jr, Lisa Nance, Nolan Meditz, Bryan D. Price, David Midkiff, Thea Matthews, Alex Wells Shapiro, Morgan Peacock, KG Newman, Gabrielle Peterson, Lorraine Henrie Lins, Bina Ruchi Perino, Katherine Lutz, Stephanie R. Nahhas, Annalee Eagerton, and rhea moon. You can … Continue reading Volume 6 of Digging, Calls for Submissions, & More
New Podcast – Episode 13
Cultural Omnivore, Ep. 13 We’re back. Want to know what ‘cultural omnivore’ means to us…tune in! Check out other episodes at Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Continue reading New Podcast – Episode 13
2018 Editor’s Picks
2017 Editor’s Picks: Christina Kallery (Poetry) and Eileen Merriman (Fiction) Continue reading 2018 Editor’s Picks
Community No. 34
In this week’s community, we feature works by N.L.H. Hattam and Mary Bone. — N.L.H. HATTAM N. L. H. Hattam has kept creative writing as a constant companion, both in writing and reading. N. L. H. Hattam took a circuitous route to embracing creative writing as more than a hobby, graduating from SNHU with a degree in English and Creative Writing in 2017 after stops … Continue reading Community No. 34
Community No. 29
In this week’s community, we feature works by Paul Beckman and Leigh Fisher. — PAUL BECKMAN Paul’s third collection, Kiss Kiss, was published by Truth Serum Press in the Spring of 2018. Author’s Website: http://www.paulbeckmanstories.com AND www.pincusb.com Title: Sunday Brunch at the Olympic Diner First Line(s): Sunday’s line for breakfast at the Olympic Diner was a block and a half long instead of the usual block. URL: http://belomag.com/sunday-brunch-at-the-olympic-diner-by-paul-beckman/ Genre: … Continue reading Community No. 29
Stories No. 72 – John Murphy
Stories No. 72 – Desert Diner Robbery by John Murphy Continue reading Stories No. 72 – John Murphy
Stories No. 71 – Demy Ren
Stories No. 71 – Hermes by Demy Ren Continue reading Stories No. 71 – Demy Ren
Stories No. 70 – Laura Winnick
Stories No. 70 – how we talk when we talk like ladies by Laura Winnick Continue reading Stories No. 70 – Laura Winnick