Thank you Margaret Atwood!

Joyland

a hub for short fiction

Joyland Retro 2 is now in print, with work from Peter Orner, Kate Durbin, Daniel Mueller and more. Every copy sold will help support Joyland and its authors.
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Truth & Fiction Podcast
Our monthly podcast with authors, screenwriters, and publishers
Joyland Retro
We also make a print journal and books
About & Submissions
Who we are, how it works and how to submit
Joyland Poetry
Our site dedicated to poetry

Joyland is a literary magazine that selects fiction regionally. Our editors work with stories and excerpts by authors connected to locales across North America. Visit us at Tumblr too.

New York

The Savior of Clouds

Shane Jones

Megan ‘The Love of God’ Jeffries moved her finger. Click. The subject of the email read Please proofread the attached cover letter (ALIGNMENT ISSUE: AN ISSUE AT ALL?). New email calmed her. She...

San Francisco

Divestment

Helene Wecker

Helene Wecker's debut novel, The Golem and the Jinni, is now available from HarperCollins. Gerda Kohl, eighty years old, sat in the den of her house, surrounded by cardboard boxes. Her two daughters...

Los Angeles

The Pop-Up Restaurant

J. Ryan Stradal

We admit it. Like almost all of you, we here at Spice Rack have never eaten at a restaurant called “The Pulitzer.” We’ve never tried what Food Source calls a “Grand Marnier and orange zest crème...

Toronto

Are You Okay?

Tamara Faith Berger

An excerpt from “The Way of the Whore,” revised and newly collected beside Believer Book Award winner Tamara Faith Berger's first novel,“Lie With Me,” in Little Cat, from Coach House Books. “Are...

Midwest

Klan

Heather Sappenfield

Elijah flung himself on his bed, jammed his hands behind his head, and stared at the double-winged models of WWI fighter planes hanging from his ceiling. He imagined their propellers spinning,...

Montreal Atlantic

St. Urbain’s Horse’s Ass

Drew Nelles

Almost every evening, beginning in late April or early May, Isaac sat on the exposed staircase of his apartment and watched the corner of St. Urbain and Bernard gasp to life. The condos around the...

Joyland South

Sinking

Christine Utz

The summer storm crouched behind them while they stared at the gator in the mud. It was hard to say how big he was; only his flat, u-shaped snout appeared above the water line. The rest of his body...

Vancouver

Maternity Suit

Pauline Holdstock

When she started at Ridout and Finney’s, Melanie was very careful about what she wore. Light brown pumps with a medium heel, a wool suit in calm camel, and pantyhose the colour of weak tea. Under...

Consulate

Essay: The Real Portlandia

Richard Melo

Richard Melo's new novel, Happy Talk, is out this June from Red Lemonade. I was half out of my mind if not all the way. One year, I became a single dad. Then a year and a half later, my kid’s mom...