Short Fiction

Eva

Gregory Fodero

I awoke and tried to open my eyes but found that they were taped shut. I couldn’t move my mouth, and my hands felt to be frozen in wet towels. An ache radiated from the wrists up to my shoulders ... [+]

Short Fiction

The Weaver

Crowe Rowe

The Weaver weaves through their workshop among their prized quilts: one depicting pale-faced kings, another black-skinned warriors, another almond-eyed holy men, and many more quilts with many more ... [+]

Short Fiction

A Sense of Failure

Joe McGehee

With a pounding heart Brian rose up in bed, drenched in sweat like a drowning man gasping for air. Surrounded by darkness and immersed in memories, these nightmare images floated through his mind ... [+]

Short Fiction

Radiant

MCHayes

It was the kind of crimson-covered sole that coaxed me to go to the Shoeshine Man. Most of my needs were met by black cobblers around the corner from our church on Sixteenth Street but they knew ... [+]

Short Fiction

The Maid's Cadillac

M Wilburn

Emelda Beason had a  lovely lilt to her laughter,  a natural hoarseness. Her words and tone were gracious. Jakesport was a fishing town on Alabama’s  Coosa River before developers  turned it ... [+]

Short Fiction

Inheritance

Susannah Cate

Joan feels remorse for having hated her toes most of her life. She inherited them from her grandmother, who had hated them too. Her grandmother had cried at the swimming pool on Joan's 11th birthday ... [+]

Short Fiction

The Waiting Room

Grace Freedson

The words in my textbook dance off the page in highlighted neon lines. I hadn’t made the highlights. They came with the book despite Ebay’s reassurance that it was in “good condition; like ... [+]

Short Fiction

Wildflowers

lovelmo Gordon

It’s a cool Saturday in October and Peter Jenkins, age 11, is bouncing the basketball in the ball court, of Capital Public Houses, where he lives. The chubby, caramel-colored Black boy plays ball ... [+]

Short Fiction

The Hole In The Wall

H.L. Dowless

Sister Sue lived in the convent. Tim Flowers worked nearby on the land. Sister Sue had lived behind the wall for such a long time. Flowers thought it was all so grand. The convent was ... [+]

Short Fiction

My African brother

DJD

One day my African friend Mogio and I are walking to a sub shop. While walking we hear word of a black movement squad making their presents known by playing hip hop basketball and picketing marching ... [+]

Short Fiction

The Mechanics

Elaine Rosenberg Miller

The walls of the Manhattan apartment had been repainted many times. They were bubbled and uneven. Here and there their surfaces had cracked, revealing the colors of decades past.
“Can I get ... [+]

Short Fiction

America in the Sky

Bozlich B

I remember that day starting off ordinarily enough; there I was playing in the open field not that far from home, the sky azure with hardly a cloud blighting its face.
The lie of the land is so ... [+]

Short Fiction

Get Back On

Tisha Reichle-Aguilera

When Daddy’s brother, Uncle Edward, got a new horse for his fancy shows, he gave me his gentle old mare, Pearl, for my seventh birthday. I thought she was the best present ever.
“That’s a ... [+]

Short Fiction

The Knight In Gold Armor

Manuela Guerra

There once was a thriving village ruled by a council of elders. Crops grew strong, bellies stretched wide, and rivers were inviolable. Neighbors were allies. One day, when the sun was at its highest ... [+]

Short Fiction

Schrodinger's Scale

Rekha Valliappan

'I guess we don't know what's real or unreal . . . '  - Anne Rice
One day in midsummer the snow on the meadow turns red. All Simi can do is prepare for the end of the world. She thinks she ... [+]

Short Fiction

I wear a mask!

Joyce Scott

“Put on your mask,” Victoria said.
“What?” asked Michael.
“We have to wear a mask. I wear a mask and you wear a mask,” answered Victoria.
“Why?” ... [+]