Principal - 2025 - Short Édition

Short Fiction

Portrait 5 min

Crookedness

One of the first things my mom did after we found out that I'd gotten in was search online for a winter coat for me. She saved money and bought me a beautiful Cabela's coat. It was full-length with a ... [+]

Short Fiction

3 min

Money, Mama, and the Mango Tree

Emmanuel Ikeh

In my family, Sundays were sacred, not for church or naps, but for what we called Ledger Night. Under the sprawling mango tree in our courtyard in Ibadan, my grandfather would bring out his battered ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

Rocking the Boat

Rachana Pathak

The ginger stung. Real root, grated and raw, not the syrupy imitation that hides in most cocktails. Nina gulped, mascara streaking her face in crooked lines, the bartender pretended not to see. We ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Trove

Cedric Rose

Fallen leaves floated around our calves as we tried to catch a big crawdad that had eluded us all summer. With a twig, Kyle tried to coax it out from under a rock while I stood poised to grab the ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Wedding Fever

Miriam Alex

Marcus was easy, and I appreciated that about him. When I told him the wedding had been canceled, he'd been sweet and uncomfortable, yielding half of our "non-refundable" retainer within minutes and ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

What The Money Knows

Yolanda Wiggins

The first time a bill spoke, Ms. Angie thought it was the lights above register three—a fly-buzz in glass. But then the five-dollar note in her palm rasped, "Don't give me to him. He's no docto ... [+]

Short Fiction

Portrait 5 min

Quicksand Street

M. Morton

We call it Quicksand Street, despite what the road signs say. Where the sidewalks should be, two long columns of dirt reside, that kick up dust in the summertime. In the spring, when the rain really ... [+]

Short Fiction

3 min

Safekeeping

Melanie Lau

Sasi leaves Vientiane past midnight. At what morning hour, she's not sure, only that she was pulled from sleep under a crescent moon. She takes the charge of lugging her family's largest ka-tip, used ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

Skins

Jaimee Wriston Colbert

After she died, I pawed through her things for what I could take to make me remember her, swiping tears off my cheeks all the while. The tears felt inauthentic somehow, but kept dripping anyway. My ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Plastic (Rights) Rites

Jen Schneider

10. Ten minutes before ten, the funeral home invoices an estimate like a weather report: grief showers; today's chance of mourning, 100%. I open my grandmother's purse. The zipper is a mouth that ... [+]

Short Fiction

3 min

Pass-through

Matt Goldberg

"Good afternoon, gentlemen—and lady," the pitchman says, giving the little bow he practices when no one's watching. "I'm here with an incredible business and humanitarian opportunity. You're ... [+]

Creative Nonfiction

5 min

Money Apron Melody

Tricia Vita

Between the two of them, my parents taught me everything a carny kid should know about money, the be-all and end-all of our life on the road. Mom showed me how to press the wrinkles out of bills with ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Ledger of Lives

Jennifer Gibbs

I find the ledger on a Tuesday, in a box that smells like pencil shavings and winter mornings. My father labeled everything with stubborn precision: taxes. Receipts. Appliance manuals for machines ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Money for Nothing

Jon Gluckman

Stan and I sit on fenceposts six feet apart. Chicken wire loops like sideways eyelashes between each six-foot section. Periodically, we flick boogers, spit ‘t-baca,' and bet on which chicken's going ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

First Blush

Angie Curneal Palsak

I find the package on our splintered, leaning front porch, tossed there by the delivery driver. It feels too light for its price. I shrug and carry it up to my attic room, unlocking the door's ... [+]

Short Fiction

4 min

I See a Big Boy Cry

Katherine Cart

WE LEAVE EVERYTHING as it is in R's hot front yard because we'll be right back. There are things we need at the big stores. We walk the half mile down the long hill to the bus stop where the one bus ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

Finding Frank Sinatra

Renee Tawa

Nope, the world-famous rock star is so not flirting with me. He just wants to buy my hat. Dante's first offer is ridiculously high, though God knows I need the money—student loans, cat's surgery ... [+]

Short Fiction

5 min

A Simple Life

G.E. Motz

Melvin, bearded and rosy-cheeked, sat on the porch with a glass of water perched on his rocking chair, condensation staining the wood. The sleepy rays of the sun split the yard, catching in a patch ... [+]

Short Fiction

2 min

Annotations of Distance

Sean Cho Ayres

In a high-rise apartment in Manila, the light flickers every hour like a bad joke. Mariel, twenty-eight, sits on a plastic chair with a cracked back, bent over a screen that displays hundreds of ... [+]