Flash Fiction
A Phone Conversation with a Friend That Doesn’tUnderstand Me Very Well by Emily Linehan
Everything feels so personal now. The shitty connection of this call, the warping mole on my shoulder, the dinner plate shattered on the floor. It’s dangerous, that kind of belief, but I believe it so much like how some people believe in their own God: Everything in my life is, if not my fault, then…
Red Lipstick
by Callie Nadeau It is common knowledge that the second most powerful article a woman can have on her person is red lipstick. The first is pepper spray. Nothing grabs someone’s attention like a cherry-red lip sat upon a beautiful face. It allows people around you to know that you are a competent and capable…
A Bone in the Throat
By Huina Zheng My sister’s ex-husband showed up on Chinese New Year’s Eve. We thought he had come to borrow money or cause trouble. Before the divorce he had lived off my sister and gambled away her earnings. But he brought a big jar of White Rabbit candies. He even handed each of his three…
Echoes on the Trail
By Huina Zheng While cycling through Dafu Mountain Park, a girl sped past me. Her ponytail bounced with each pedal stroke, reminding me of my elder sister when we were kids. The soft squeak of her brakes echoed the sound of my sister’s old Phoenix bike—its worn pads always screeched in protest. As she passed,…
Fading Beauty
By Huina Zheng In front of the bookshelf, my mother pulled out a heavy copy of the Xinhua Dictionary, its pages worn. From its depths, she withdrew a photograph and handed it to me. I’m much prettier than she is, my mother said. I looked down at the picture, which, too, had yellowed with time.…
Of the Desert and my Soul
By Zac Holt WINNER OF THE RIVER’S SPRING 2025 FLASH FICTION CONTEST As I walked through the wide open desert, the blue skies grew dark with black clouds. There wasno place to hide so I kept walking. Up and down hills of sand. After some time the rain started.The sand-filled gullies before me ran red…
Sea Glass
Anabelle Taff RUNNER UP OF THE RIVER’S SPRING 2025 FLASH FICTION CONTEST “It has no value, sweetheart. Find something pretty,” Mom insists.Under the waves, it is shining up at me, aquamarine and alone. She carries on down the shore and I reach down, plucking it up from the muddy sand. I hold it in the…
Wednesday Cat Hunt
Kylee Walton RUNNER UP OF THE RIVER’S SPRING 2025 FLASH FICTION CONTEST By Author From what I have gathered, Wednesdays do not produce good art. More often than not on Wednesdays I am left sitting on my stool for hours. Not moving, not saying a word. The only time my pointless staring is interrupted is…
The End of Instruction
By Daniel Speechly For all their smarts, the teachers never once considered that ignorance could be wielded like a closed fist or a bamboo pole. They surely underestimated the power of righteous stupidity. It didn’t help that the teachers were as stubborn as they were smart. My Great Grandfather told me about their plight, for…
Winter
By Katie Lipoma A sickness fell over Father when December fell over the town.Father used to toss food scraps to the ravens when it got cold. They would flock to theirfeast and prod at the frozen landscape. He said ravens were not unlike humans and made surethat they remained well fed each winter even when…
Heaven is a Plate on Earth
My husband and I are out on a hunt. With a machete in hand, I cut of three-headed mushrooms that run rampant in this part of the woods like some vegetal fiend. I avoid the ones that have just the wrong tone of white around the stem, or the ones with sticky yellow petals. My…
“Boris, is that you?”
By Kylee Walton Boris, is that you? I watch the man cross the street several times. He goes back and forth, sidewalk to sidewalk. The street is residential, not many cars pass. My wooden front steps are sunken, rotting from the inside. I sit, smoking and watching him. I’ve just finished mowing…
“The Last Session”
By Zachary Holt The Last Session A knock came from my open door and I looked up to see Jansen standing there. “Jansen, come in,” I said. He stepped into the room, turned, and looked out into the hallway in both directions before closing the door and taking his seat. “What brings you in today?”…
“MY HAIRDRESSER WEARS COMBAT BOOTS”
By Karen Regen Tuero My Hairdresser Wears Combat Boots The first thing I noticed about my new hairdresser was not the stylish joggers, but the combat boots. They gave me well-placed confidence in his ability to tackle my troublesome hair. But during my last visit, he was distracted. The result wasn’t a disastrous haircut -…
“Tiger Auntie’s Dinner” and “Lost Youth”
By Huina Zheng Tiger Auntie’s Dinner Under a moonlit night, my brother and I, jolted awake by fierce knocks, tiptoed to our door. Isolated in our forest home, with Ba’s leg broken and Ma away for help, we peeked out to see an immense figure—Tiger Auntie. Her eyes, pools of moonlit mystery, sparkled fiercely, framed…
“Redemption”
By Hyun Woo Kim Richard haunts me after all these years when my husband falls asleep. I had every right to turn down his crush on me; looking back, it did not mean that I could humiliate him publicly. He was just a teenager like my son, socially awkward and sensitive. I do not want…
CONTEST HONORABLE MENTION: “Skink” by Wilson Krause
Skink By Wilson Krause Did you know that lizards of the family Scincidae have developed a process during reproduction that is analogous to the mammalian placenta? Not for a live birth, by any means — they are lizards, after all — but the young are nourished within the womb. Isn’t that something? A lizard embryo…
CONTEST WINNER: “Spinning” by Rowan Fitzgerald
Spinning By Rowan Fitzgerald A sudden release of tension discomposed his very soul. He began spinning at a dizzying rate. Each rotation gave him a contrasting but fleeting view of both the Earth and the open void of space. His heart was perched in his throat but he never allowed panic to steal from him…
“A Tulip And The Switchblade”
By Gwen Lombard A Tulip And The Switchblade An arm wrapped around her waist, and a sinking feeling grew in the pits of her stomach. Evelyn bit back a sigh as Laura’s lips found the crook of her neck and her arm pulled her closer. The sinking feeling gnawed at her insides as the…
“Perklety and Kilsmaddeny”
By Jessamyn Rains Perklety and Kilsmaddeny They wore matching pink-and-blue sweaters and carried purple and silver Lisa Frank Trapper Keepers on the first day of seventh grade. They sat in front of you in your Language Arts class, one of them short and freckled, brown-haired with an upturned nose, the other tall and blond…
“Rebels”
By Laurence Lumsden Rebels Sprawled on the worn carpet in front of the telly, Bobby and I are best friends. We’re Starsky and Hutch, accents twanging, or we’re Bodie and Doyle, cockney slanging. But oh, outside on a damp Dublin night, our breaths fuming with Grandad’s cigarettes, our role models aren’t American or English,…
“Date Night”
By Kelly Erin Gray Date Night Jamie was rolling a lone meatball around her plate when another couple was seated nearby. “What do you think?” Jack asked, pointing with the tip of his fork. “First date?” She hated when he talked with a mouth full of food, just like she hated when he ate…
“A Name Foreign”
By Audrey T. Carroll A Name Foreign We’re talking about naming practices in families, how four of five generations of Heffers had a Thomas straight down the line, how the last name evolved after Ellis Island. In my family—both sides—we tend to flip names, especially women’s names—Jacqueline Mary swapped for Mary Jacqueline, Theresa Audrey…
“Fallen Catholic”
By Rina Palumbo Fallen Catholic I walked to the river’s edge when I was eleven years old. I can’t swim. So, on a late summer day when I was eleven, I stood barefoot on the sharp stones that marked the boundary between land and water. The sun was a perfect sphere, and as I…
Untuned
By Robert L. Penick It’s three A.M. and Tommy Womack is on Youtube, being a genius that few have ever heard. Outside the window, the rain is tapping its way down the downspout like a blind man’s cane. You bought a lottery ticket yesterday evening, a sure sign you’ve again given up hope and are…
