The South | JOYLAND

Maybe in the Wintertime

Daisuke Shen -

We sat at the dinner table eating hot pot, one of the only things I was good at making. It’s impossible to fuck up. The...

The Conductor

Julia Coursey -

Once there was a wizard who was also a train conductor. He was not a particularly powerful wizard; in fact, his main skill was detecting...

Lover Number Ninteteen

Alina Grabowski -

Bryan - Resembled my father to a startling degree, which means, according to psychology, that I should have been attracted to him. But my father has...

The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs

Leah Schnelbach -

Staying at Chloë’s house meant heat, the sister’s voice like a buzzsaw, her stepdad’s friends’ comments, roaches flying in the bathroom, yellow American grilled cheese. I...

Fourth of July

R.D. Williams -

In a few weeks, on the Fourth of July, you’ll be in Miami for fireworks and ice cream. Under a smoky sky by the bay,...

The Scare

Joanna Pearson -

Cooperton was the only child in the neighborhood Karina did not like. When Sammy played with any of the other children, she felt just fine,...

The Wig

Kristen Iskandrian -

It glinted—such an unnecessary, poetic word—but it did, glint in the sun as it went over the guardrail and down thirty feet into the drainage...

Adelphophagy

Delynn S. Willis -

On her and her sister’s thirteenth birthday, Alison locked herself in the bathroom and gave herself bangs. An hour later, her twin, Amber, sat...

The Party

Rion Amilcar Scott -

Rion Amilcar Scott's debut collection, Insurrections, is now available from University Press of Kentucky. Order here. "The Party" was first published on Joyland in winter...

What Will Make It Last

Ashley Strosnider -

The banks of the Mississippi were as long and brown and green from the window of the restaurant as they were from the window...