
Portrait of a Seated Man
Jonathan Hull
New fiction: “Museum staff had given him a nickname, they called him ‘The Toad,’ and they whispered it to one another whenever he entered the galleries.”

Everyone Has Your Best Interests at Heart
Sara Lippmann
New Fiction: “Fake rifles pick off fake deer.”

Float
Rebecca Aronauer
New fiction: “Diana was happy for Ari and Rachael, the same way she was happy for a lost dog who found his way home after having been missing for weeks.”

Five Tourist Photographs Inadvertently Capturing Images of Aubriana Franco
Paul Curtis
New fiction: “The rooftops are melting. Across the city, patio furniture and pigeon coops are being swallowed up by sticky tar.”

Grandma Crude
George Kamide
New fiction from the author: “After the third bucket, Burt Hammer finally explained he was trying to harvest methane from the cow patties as an energy source.”

Market Center
Louise Phillips
“The next day Nixon steered Soviet Premier Khrushchev over to the Pepsi kiosk.”

The Inland Sea
Norman Lock
“The ship came as though out of a dream—not mine: the water’s and the night’s.”

The Magic Hour
T.B. Grennan
“As I lay there bleeding, she methodically checked each and every frame of film for scratches.”

Wild Grass
Nellja Veremej
“I was concerned about her love, because Lydia smelled so strongly of blood and cervelat.”


Traders
Jenny Halper
“It is the first time my cell has ever dialed 911. By the time the ambulance comes a crowd has gathered.”

Elephant
PD Mallamo
“That night he sleeps well, figuring if the police aren’t there by 12 a.m. they’re not coming at all.”

Elevator
Rachel Signer
“‘I’m in the elevator with one other person,’ she said. One other person! As if Jonathan Franzen were just one other person!”

Alyosha the Jug
Leo Tolstoy
“Alyoshka was small, gaunt, and lop-eared (they stuck out like wings), with a big nose. The kids teased: ‘Alyoshka’s got a nose like a misshapen potato.’”

The Death of a Government Official
Anton Chekhov
“He says he’s forgotten, but there’s venom in his eyes, thought Chervyakov, looking at the general with suspicion.”

Focus Group
Daniel Browne
“A teenager’s response to advertising, Lauren had found, has everything to do with how she thinks of herself.”

After the Rapture
Gary Britson
“Ain’t much of a job. You forget, I wasn’t hired by no church. The First Church of the Eternal Rapture is my own creation. I don’t receive no salary. I live on donations.”

Barbicide
Rob Jacklosky
“Sleuthing involved a lot of inter-personal contact, apparently, and it was making me uncomfortable. From now on, I decided, I would make my own coffee.”

Alarm Calls
Mary Morris
“They cannot see the road or anything around them. It is as if they are traveling in a capsule through space. Hurtling on a mission into some vast unknown.”

The Best Part of My Christmas Vacation Was . . .
Gary Sprague
“I ignore her, keep chomping dots. Surprisingly, I’m having a great game.”