In the fall of Helga Vierksen’s death, I was seven years old.

You’re listening to an audiobook about the history of the Mercury space program when the car accident happens. It’s so fast you barely... more

1) Technically, everything remains but the stereo, circa 1998, a sound system so old it couldn't play CD's for more than an hour without overheating into unbearable skips...

The real cowboy wears a fishing cap and one of those vests you associate with photographers, only his isn't stuffed with film or lenses or... more

Of course, I think that Mark Twain is true.   I think that Samuel Clemens is the lie.  Only a dishonest person wants you to know that a story they are telling "really happened."

Perks of Being a Wallflower is the very beautiful, slightly tragic, endearing story of diffident, introverted... more

Kathy Acker was sick of shaving her legs.  Every time she shaved them she cut herself.  It didn’t matter if the blade... more

You were a horse yesterday; what happened? I rode you places under the hot sun. You fought off flies with your tail and... more

Can I speak to you for a moment?

It’s your son’s teacher and so this can’t be good.  Now not good, doesn’t have to mean bad, but it means... more

Hello, Sarah, your skin’s perspiring. Nervous? Your heart rate just jumped to 153 beats per minute and your eyes dilated by two... more

Thrift stores are full of possibility and sadness, which makes them perfect settings for fiction, in my opinion.

Here is what I know. They wear tights. Their wings are thin flapping things that look more like dragonflies than butterflies. They never... more

I still remember how he'd pour, like a ritual, like he still does to this day when he mixes himself a Beam & Pepsi at the end of the day.

I literally can’t even warn you about what it feels like to see Sinister, other than that it makes you feel like you’re watching a... more

I am talking about the one with the monkey paw clutched against her breast. I have no illusions about the others. We can make this work.

DREAM

Our legs are stilts. Beyond our ankles
are the blunt ends of crutches. Our feet
are missing. But our hands are... more

Here’s a story. One night in the tedious plains of Colorado, Abraham Lincoln drove his Model T into an embankment...

He had a broad scar that ran over the back of his kneecap. The skin was all shiny and soft, like white bread packaged in Saran Wrap.

The gas station guy said, You folks all right?

a short comic 

A massive plaster moon rotates above the rooftop bar, casting a milky... more

This was the movie that I had been most excited for this summer. I’m most likely Zach Galifianakis’ biggest fan, and I’m not that... more

One girl watches the boys make a bomb of birds

a split bowl of suns dissolving a table

An excited murmur came to life when the audience was informed of the PhD in Biogenetics, the B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and then the sweet icing: the minor in English.
 

Before she left for Avignon, before we left for Chicago, she said, “I miss my nephew. I miss Joshua, and I... more

For this edition of the Non-Reader Spotlight, I’m thrilled to be talking about reading and not reading with Mary Hamilton.

“I thought you were going to play football,” she says.

“Yeah,” I say.

“You’re wearing jeans.”

“Yes.”

She is folding... more

Spend enough time on Twitter and you will eventually discover there is within it an... more

FUTURE 45

There was a pile of sticks on the edge of the world. In it, numerous things of... more