A New Kind of Literary Pulse

My dad came home from work and sat on the black leather couch in the living room. He always sat in the same spot. He always looked tired. Every night went the same: first work, then couch until the ... [+]

Heavy dark clouds were accumulating above the city, the precursors of a violent electric storm. Horse-drawn buggies in the streets were seeking shelter. Igor swept dust motes and dried cockroach ... [+]

I imagined diving under all that churning water to look for coins from faraway countries. My feet would be glued to the ground carrying the weight of one of those old-timey, metal spaceman-looking ... [+]

On his way out the door to a meeting with a client, the husband said, "We should have a baby," and the wife, pointing to one of the windows that overlooked the driveway, said, "We already have an ... [+]

"You're in New England," the man in front of me said with a British accent, so my mind—which I knew was not running completely clearly—assumed he meant that we both were in a new version of ... [+]

Fred is an arsonist—and, Fred is not an arsonist. Let me explain: Fred has thought of fire, its power and grace, for a long time. Perhaps since he was a child. He often watched fires, mesmerized ... [+]

It was real cold that night, not just Miami cold, and it was late. I'd had to wait until the girls were asleep to go out into the pre-Christmas lunacy of the mall because my wife and I were keeping ... [+]

"She's a difficult pleasure," I said of my ex-wife. I was standing at the front door of her house, talking to her new partner, Sammy, a woman. My ex-wife, Lily, was not there.
We both took in ... [+]

At The Corner Bar read-in, a man wearing large work boots and with dark hair flopping over his forehead sits on a love seat, reading. A woman wearing a golden sweater hovers over him.
"Excuse me," ... [+]

You know how people say "you can't choose your relatives, but you can choose your friends?"
Well that may be true, but let me add that you can't always choose your husband's business buddies and ... [+]

Jada had a serious problem. The problem was named Kyle, a 5'6", blond example of what happens when you give your kids too much praise when they're young. Jada was our best friend, and despite being ... [+]

As the guests were transitioning from dinner to dessert the gracious host approached the bandstand, took the microphone, and dismissed the band. "Let's hear it for Carl and the Clean Scene, greatest ... [+]

She sleeps like a dead weight now beside me, lowered into the night, the ropes of the day swaying around her. We know nothing about each other really. She does not know how often my ex-lover visits me ... [+]