The Midwest | JOYLAND

Baby

Carol M. Quinn -

Miss Harris favors a hands-off approach in homeroom, to conserve her strength for the rest of the day, but sometimes she cannot help but...

This Is Not from Outer Space

Becky Adnot-Haynes -

I’d had men want me before, but never someone like Luke. The meteor man, I called him jokingly in a text to Louise, my...

Back Home in Ida County

Katie Young Foster -

Lara, anxious, unable to dream, rose from her bed at midnight. She stepped off the porch. The screen door clipped Marco’s breathing. The darkness around her was graded:...

Eat Me When I Die

Maggie Su -

In the middle of my preserved rainforest, I watched a white-headed Capuchin monkey throw itself off the highest branches of one of the last...

Half Abstraction, Half Object

Frank Montesonti -

The realtor’s feet were strange; her shoes looked like bricks. She clomped up each stair while telling them how her late-husband (bless-his-soul) rescued her...

Romance Language

Amir Adam -

She texted Manon at the top of each act. She texted her through the toréador’s aria. Un oeil noir te regarde, just checking in. When we...

The Wolf’s Head

Christine Vines -

Quentin Carter grasps the metal bar on his lap with the nervous ferocity of a child wringing his covers in the dark. He was...

Variety and Illusion

Lyndsey Ellis -

Theo found Alex’s house around sunrise and pissed on the porch. He watched steam rise from his splashes on the cobblestone steps, not stopping...

If You, Too, Know the Words to “Super Bass”

Shannon McLeod -

The journalist, Rikesh, sat me beside my living room window. He said the lighting was perfect. I imagined the sunlight casting shadows along my...

Skywalker from Belgium

Jonathan Crowl -

Eight years later, Janne comes to America. She emails an old account: Is three weeks notice enough? I say I left Seattle, I’m back...