Анна Удод - stock.adobe.comI. Northward
January 2, Arrival
By night they flew, korvat kuin korpit, ears like ravens, who hear a bark. They listened to the forest rustling; to the storms in the woods.…
Fiction
The Woman He was a disgrace of a man. The lowest of the low. He pounded the table, every blow making the kerosene lamp shudder. The noise was accompanied by intermittent bursts of neurotic ranting an…
An ordinary day in Ávila darkens following a neighborly intervention. Setting a succulent into the window box outside, Maria spotted the boys from 2D in the courtyard below. Three brick buildings and…
Photo by Joachim Pressl on Unsplash A few days into a third lockdown, a cat and her human companion have differing views about how to handle an army of slugs attacking the petunias. My cat P…
Photo by Abigail Keenan on Unsplash A young woman with two degrees and no job hits the streets of Palermo looking for work with only a Dorothy Parker poem to sustain her. Ratty slippers, di…
In Colombian writer Octavio Escobar Giraldo’s first publication in English, it isn’t only the parishioner saying her Hail Marys. “I confess, Father. I confess that I am happy about the death…
In this fraught meeting between father and daughter, a woman rescues what she can from an estranged relationship. two weeks ago, when i saw my father, i wrote, “dear diary, this morning when…
A woman gives birth in a room where all the windows are covered with pages of a book to be burned. The woman inside, the women outside: all wait for the author. Luz is going to scream. She c…
A girl executes her escape plan, with one unexpected twist at the end. She walks through the house. It’s quiet now; everyone’s sleeping. Behind the bedroom door she can hear her father’s dee…
Photo by Ivy Yung on Unsplash Written in the early stages of the pandemic, this fairytale-like story finds a man looking to shape his environment to reflect the fragility of life—one screw at a t…
Photo by Greg Rakozy & Alfons Morales on Unsplash In this short story from Japan, the narrator—who is disappearing organ by organ—dissolves into a library as encompassing as the cosmos.…
In a dimly lit crypt, a woman loses her way and finds her thoughts toggling between a mysterious man in the dark tunnel and a childhood friend. The sun was setting when she got off the bus.…
Artwork from Lwapula Province / Courtesy of Dr. Christine Saidi, Kutztown University The Aushi are an ethnolinguistic group located in the Lwapula Province of the Republic of Zambia and in the Ka…
A woman’s writing, and routine, are disrupted when she meets a man on a bicycle. The signorina Maddalena Rubí has a passion for poetry. She writes a little after dinner each night, before go…
Each Saturday evening, they would meet, braiding and unbraiding their hair in a synchronized rhythm. But then one night, everything changed. On Saturday nights, they braided. They all wore t…
Jerusalem is ultimately a city of eternal strangers. The connection to the city is not a connection to place, but rather a connection to time. Here, on the watershed of the winds, between re…
Why would a girl of fourteen choose a minor key? Let Chopin carry you away, just as he does Nina, who brings the revolution to the keys of a prewar Steinway. “Nina, you’re next,” they whisp…
Photo by Shahin Khalaji on Unsplash Narrated by a chorus of male voices, this story recounts the details of an incident that occurred in a company of only male employees, triggered by the entry o…
Rimini, Italy / Photo by Letizia Agosta / Unsplash Find a spot near some water and let yourself be transported to the Italian seaside in this story of two teens who meet on the beach and form a q…
“Anatomy of the mouth” by liverpoolhls is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 In the dentist’s chair with mouth wide open, a patient contemplates her tongue’s relationships to B6 or B7, how shade 2 benef…
Photo by Serj Tyaglovsky / Unsplash With two weeks of food and the outside world covered in cellophane, apartment dwellers under a stay-at-home order get to know their neighbors as things grow in…
Photo by Olga Serjantu / Unsplash Whatever happened in the neighborhood, ‘Ubayd was said to be behind it. Disappearing water pumps and gas cylinders, broken streetlights, and fires in the farmers’ ma…
“We Don't Care Broken Window Theory” by Zak MC is licensed under CC by SA 2.0 Old Acquaintance Having met by chance, they hugged. “Long time no see!” the men chorused. They caught up, exchanged telep…
“I love you" by @Doug88888 / flickr People believe, Marie thinks, even when there’s no proof. You believe because you imagine. But is imagination enough to live by? Die. This is wha…
In the Karl Liebknecht House in Leipzig, Germany, thirty people of various nationalities are seated around an improvised table on the stage in the Events Hall, interpreters behind them, some with…