A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Home
Logo Long Story Short Award - Fall 2020
Short Fiction
 5 min

Ghost

Lunara Fouquet

I was dumbfounded. Sitting before me was a young boy who looked like he would not last a week, much less years, of specialized training.

Yet, the Don and Underboss of the Family presented him ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

Dandelion

Lucy Myhill

I used to wish on dandelions as a child; I truly believed that everything I wanted would come to me if I blew away those seeds into the sky. It was like planting my dreams all over the earth. I wished ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

Why Jo Bikes

Penelope Alegria

Jo wakes before the sun. This is when the sky is red and the Illinois sidewalks are still clean and empty. It’s so early, she doesn’t even realize she has started pedaling into the morning until she ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

Nina Falls

Darius Atefat-Peckham

The old girl living in Room Number 12, Farmanieh Nursing Home in Tehran has a funny way of watching her television. She sets up a chair in front of the lone window in her room, as if to look out at ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

Wonder and Whisper

Silvyr Dragøn

Ting

She smiled as the sun warmed her face. Her sleeves. Her Arms.

As the crystalline tinkle of the nearby stream reached her ears.

As a child, just out of sight, laughed in ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

The Night it Snowed in L.A.

Caroline Stickel

“It’s snowing outside,” Lionel lunged for the windowsill, gripping the cold plastic with the eagerness of a child. There he stayed, equally enthralled and at ease, only glancing away to look back at ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

French Vanilla

Vivian Ounjian

The waves ripple back as I stare into the glimmer of the moon light reflecting onto the ocean. I realize that soon the sun will rise and I’d have to start getting things ready for the day. I take a ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

Out Of Bloom

Jordan Richert

The woman in front of me sits with her legs crossed, one meticulously manicured clear-coat-polished hand holding a notebook steady on her knee. It contains far too many pieces of information about ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

How to Become a Prophetess

Savannah Nicole

Once upon a time, a young brunette sat outside the nearly empty train station in Brockingway. She pulled her purple shawl tighter around her shoulders. The snow that had began to come down stuck to ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

The Garden Swing

Benjamin Daniel

The rusted chains creaked softly, their music carried by a soft wind that rustled the leaves of nearby trees. The leather seat pressed uncomfortably against me as my gaze stayed fixed on the colorful ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

Utopia

Justine Imburgio

Ernest cracked two eggs into the black frying pan with a sizzle. The fumes of which wafted up to him in wisps of vapor that warmed his stubbled chin. Lovingly, he picked up the bottle of pepper next ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

109 Degrees

Madison Banfield

You have a few seconds when you step outside in the winter before the cold soaks into your skin. As a kid I was challenged by my older cousins to abandon the steaming hot tub sanctuary at my aunt’s ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

a ritual of change and revolution

Emma Mendez

I was the ruler of my own heart, a lover of everything life threw at me, and a carrier of grief, a messenger of death. I was once all these things in my past lives; I would like to think I still ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 1 min

The Sentinel

Rachel Allen Everett

Hours have passed. I still haven’t reached the ground. The creaking of these ancient, rusted scaffolds echoes in the endless expanse, pressing in on me as I climb ever downward. The haunted light ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 2 min

Eternal Frost

Shane Miller

Shimmering sheets of ice streaked the land for as far as any eye could hope to see. That’s all there would ever be. The sun scarcely penetrated the thick clouds of fog that rolled endlessly on what ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 4 min

Deuteragonist

Margaret Hall

The detective leaned up against the cold brick of the alleyway, a cigarette hanging loosely from his lips. In the distance, he could hear the firetrucks wail as they sped through streets still slick ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 3 min

The Memory

Anneliese Brei

“It’s a shame he left, Darling. It really is.”

Seraphina tore away a layer of paper mache from the elephant sculpture. She sat under a hanging spotlight. The sculpture lay on a white Roman ...  [+]
Short Fiction
 5 min

Coffee

Myles Larsen

A warm breeze blew past the two women sitting at the metal table, and Alice tilted her head back, closing her eyes against the sun and smiling. “Have you been here before?” she asked Emma, raising he ...  [+]