In the Hours Immediately After by Catherine Sleeman
‘183,671 other people die, including Queen Elizabeth II.’
Chronic Renditions by Bhoomika Tiwari
‘I want to reach under and wrestle the agony out of my being or crawl out of my own wretched skin but sane people don’t dig and claw at their own flesh.’
A Stranger in the Room by Sudha Subramanian
‘It was her favorite color, and she loved the smoothness of the fabric on her skin.’
Like Baked Alaska by Francesca Leader
‘I imagine the moment Uncle Fi got sick. Who the guy was. Where they met. What they did.’
Verlorate Will Die Alone by Mar Ovsheid
‘Over the next few years, a series of massive rocks proposition me for a role as my moon.’
Carving Out My Girlhood by Beatriz Salvador
‘I craved the abandoned houses, the stillness of the woods.’
Bathtub Kinship by Lukas Kofoed Reimann
‘In the water, my body isn't ambivalent, ambiguous, complicated—it's easy to read in its queerness.’
Refund, Discount or Gesture of Goodwill by Jasmine Kahlia
‘Ever since the dog, Brodie, got hit by that Hermes van, Katy had been like this.’
Lips by Arielle Burgdorf
‘She played the part of the gamine, maybe too much so. Imitating a man caused trouble.’
The Ghost by Constance Mello
‘It was like embodiment had simply flaked off her, like dry skin at the end of a long winter.’
Elephant by Micha Colombo
‘The elephant barely flinched as the spear stuck with a wobble into its right rear leg. No blood, no change. They all just kept floating downward.’