The gas station guy said, You folks all right?

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 want a baby.” The sycamores in Clark Park moved in close. There were three Ethiopian kids

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

“Yeah,” I say.

“You’re wearing jeans.”

“Yes.”

She is folding laundry, matching socks. She rolls a pair into a neat ball and

FUTURE 45

There was a pile of sticks on the edge of the world. In it, numerous things of interest were living. One was a lawyer who enjoyed eating fried chicken at unusually early times

When found in this situation we realize that it is customary to provide a list of demands or a ransom note. We have discussed amongst ourselves what we would like. We even included the hostages in

It is noon. Very hot. The Denver sun’s pitiless spotlight pushes down upon pedestrians carrying briefcases or carryout lunches. Like ants under a child’s magnifying glass, they skitter along the

How he got the resort people to put these tubs out here, I have no idea.

In 2010, Michael Martone began conducting a series of interviews. Each of these interviews was written under the pen name Matthew Baker, each of these interviews was titled “An Interview with

Doesn’t it always begin with a contraction, a fluttering musclequake, birding in your heart?

The monkey breeder interviews her suitability over the phone.

A little man in a boat paddles laps around a toilet bowl.

Elizabeth Ellen looks back at Tao Lin's "The Novelist" from Hobart, Aug./Sept. '04.

Matthew Simmons looks back at Amy Minton's "Overhanded" from Hobart, May '07, and also her interviews, and just her awesomeness in general.

Jac Jemc looks back at Spencer Dew's "The Exit Colony" from Hobart October '04.

Jensen Beach looks back at Glen Pourciau's "Belly" from Hobart October '08.

Aaron Burch looks back at two Aaron Gwyn shorts from Hobart, early 2002.

"She had lost something, but she was not sure what."

"It was terrible the way we were fighting, Janine saying how many other girlfriends of yours are going to call me, pulling out the ashtray and stubbing her Doral cigarette..."

"This was the old days, back when you could go down to Tijuana without a passport."

"We go to the golf course with a case of Busch and two deep-sea fishing rods fitted with steel leaders."

It was the day after Christmas when our parents began to argue and we went down to the basement, to our new Titan 360 Pro ping-pong table, my brother Ari and I. We were unsure about the game

On the last day of her life, my grandmother woke up, went into the bathroom to brush her teeth, and looked into the mirror to discover that she was bald. Oh! she said. That's a fright. This

The Baby's signature sportcoat was caught in the cab door again. "Every danged time," he muttered into his coffee. He disliked being seen riding in a cab, certain that others assumed he had a

The afternoon David was fired for stealing company office supplies and reselling them in an office superstore parking lot, the four verificationists took lunch ninety minutes late to see the