MAY
The Year Lilian Quartey Learnt to Pack a Bag
Tega tweeted a picture: a young boy and young girl, both of them holding hands as if on a date...... Read more →
#TuesdayTales
MAY
To the Escott Room
November arrived with commendable punctuality for the forty-ninth time in Leanne Smythe's life. Wordless, the month could only peep when it arrived, and what it produced mimicked the protests of lame beasts: on the night notes, something like a word Read more →
MAY
I Swear
I couldn’t tell anyone because no one would believe me, and I was scared that everyone would think I was bad; I didn’t want to get in trouble.
Everyone loved Mr. Heathslip. Read more →
MAY
Something About Him
It was late when Tee knocked on the door. The man he came home with had his hand on his arm when I answered. They smelled of alcohol and smoke. Read more →
APRIL
The Hold
The room went dark but for the light falling soft into the room and softer down the hallway from the bare bulb of the entry, the arch hiding the bulb itself from her, even as she lay entwined on the floor with this girl. Read more →
APRIL
The Grass Goes On Forever
From a distance they looked like cattle baying their heads at the side of the road. But when the drivers got closer the animals were actually bent-bodied men, swinging their scythes left and right, sending clumps of grass into the air like dogs scraping up dirt. Read more →
APRIL
Death In The Family
Nollaig Sheehy sat two seats from the front with her coat fastened. Her hands were folded on her knees and the priest’s late start didn’t concern her. Read more →
APRIL
Kidsgrove
As you hear your train thunder through the countryside towards your station, you wonder if anyone who hops off will see your message, if they’ll consider it as they pass, maybe even stop for a few seconds, and ask themselves if they know who wrote it. Read more →
MARCH
Let Him Go, Let Him Go From Me
Stoney looks me in the eye and says it, and it’s nothing, except it’s Stoney. Stoney in his Docs, stomp-stomp laissez-faire sangfroid, Stoney and his curled cigarette smoke statements.
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MARCH
Setting Fire to Water
Coyote struck the first match. You made a wish, cast the candles to the river and watched them flicker, fire on water—or so he had read online. Read more →
MARCH
P.O.E.T.S Day
Any other Friday would’ve been a good one to be a cabby in the city. But, it was my son’s birthday and I couldn’t take full advantage of P.O.E.T.S day. Piss. Off. Early. Tomorrow’s. Saturday. The city workers obsessed about it like a nymphomaniac nun over a delivery of fresh carrots. Read more →
MARCH
Ophelia and the Water
It was strange to approach the house and not see him, leaning all of his weight against the back of the wooden chair, shirtless with a tall can of Budweiser in one hand and a cigarette hanging loosely from his fingers in the other. It was a Tuesday morning. Read more →
FEBRUARY
Peter’s Ghost
The next day we met again for lunch and shyly confessed to what we each had felt, realising that we had experienced the night in the same way. Read more →
FEBRUARY
At Zettl’s with the Steppenwolf
The ear-piercing screech of brakes. I spin round, throw up a hand to shield my eyes from the blinding double headlights. The black Lincoln Continental’s grill crumples into twisted shards when it slams into the tree. Two men clamber out and come loping across snow-blanketed Washington Square Park. Read more →
FEBRUARY
Strange Attraction
The first time she’d been repulsed. Yet Namali also found herself drawn to him. It was a strange feeling of revulsion and attraction. A potent combination. Read more →
FEBRUARY
Jumping To
You sit at the kitchen table and stare at this still-life on your counter. He must have left while you were still asleep, slipping out of bed in the darkness. Read more →
JANUARY
The Happiness Mines
When I dread something, some fond tune or another will often come to mind...This trigger could be nothing but whistling in the dark, or maybe it’s a plea for synaesthetic wholeness. Read more →
JANUARY
A Cure for Snakebites
Through the holiday, Tess had become accustomed to expecting Sunni’s attention, but she now found he was dispensing it meanly. Read more →
JANUARY
Pomegranates
Running through the usual gestures of self-reproach, our hero descends into the waking city. Old hand at this kind of thing, sea-legs keep her steady as she regards her reflection in silvered shop windows, Read more →
JANUARY
Beguiled
Our words used to connect us. Now they drive us apart. It felt so warm when we talked. I want to feel that warmth again. I beg you to become the person once more that I love.Read more →