The Midwest | JOYLAND

Umbra

Candice Wuehle -

The Agent only managed my eyes, lower lid to supercilliary arch. A clause in our contract stipulated that the agreement could be rendered null...

Cowboys in Missouri

Kevin Clouther -

The mechanic took one look at the engine, diagnosed the problem immediately (and with not a little disdain), and charged us nothing. “It’s a rental,”...

The Two Brothers

Laura I. Miller -

Wolves are less brave than they seem. —Angela Carter I. Ruby inherited the dragon from her Uncle Pierce when he died. She’d seen the dragons advertised...

Friend of the Pod

Frannie Comstock -

When Claire first gets the notification, she excuses herself from the meeting she is in, goes into the single stall bathroom at her office,...

The Mother

Rebecca Nakaba -

She is not Laika. Laika was before. Laika was well into adulthood when they took her off the streets, Laika they had to beat...

Prophets

Brandon Taylor -

The famous black writer was in town to give a reading, and Coleman was not sure if he would go. He had known the...

The Bean and the Boneyard

Samantha Edmonds -

The beanstalk sprouted in my backyard the day of the party and, like pretty much everything else, I didn’t want to talk about it....

Blue Million Miles

Alex Higley -

As a girl, eight, nine-years-old, when Hyun would wake from a nightmare in her small radiator damp bedroom, glowing stars on the ceiling in...

The Triceratops

John Jodzio -

The same week my father gave my mother a heart attack, Jerry Dentro and I made out behind a triceratops at the Beltsville Area...

Elias

Rebekah Frumkin -

The old man’s house was at the end of the road that forked off the main road out of town. The old man was...