My body is a shallow mound, is how her most famous poem began. She had written it when she was the same age as the young man who was sitting opposite her now, wanting to interview her.
My body is a shallow mound, is how her most famous poem began. She had written it when she was the same age as the young man who was sitting opposite her now, wanting to interview her.
Christian Dior, in his Little Dictionary of Fashion maintains that “if you have a particularly outstanding feature it is always a good thing to emphasise it. In fact the whole of fashion rests largely on emphasis.”
The teacher swung his arm to strike her once more, but it remained in mid-air, as if petrified. A blue children’s watch was engraved on his skin. And with every tick the clasp sank deeper into his flesh. They could not get it off without cutting.
It contained the body of a roughly four-year-old boy. That in itself is astounding, since we’re talking about a time frame of about twenty-four thousand years ago …
I discovered a lot of secrets, a lot of combinations, dark, political, religious, ideological, personal, to do with chess; spying, double and triple secret agents from all camps, secret police involved in dirty activities.
One of those things most difficult to convey about the special conditions in which we lived was the visegradišag: that everything, buying bread, recycling, riding the tram, came with a surreal associated cost that was impossible to anticipate …
For a moment, she wondered where all dead birds go when they die, which probably happens every minute of every hour, so really, birds should be falling from the sky not just from time to time, but raining down constantly …
A girl boarded the train. Actually, she was no longer a girl, because she was about thirty. But there was something in her behaviour and her appearance which suggested that, body aside, she was still a girl.
Vratislav Kadlec’s short story collection Hranice lesa (The Forest Boundary), from which this piece was taken, received the Magnesia Litera Award.
Paweł Sołtys is a Polish writer as well as a musician, singer and songwriter also known under his stage name, Pablopavo.
Zach Murphy is a Hawaii-born writer with a background in cinema. His debut chapbook of flash fiction is Tiny Universes.
THIRD MARRIAGE I was not invited to my father’s third marriage, but they saved me some cake, and the bride’s aunt gave me a knitted
THREE IN THE AFTERNOON I told him to meet me at three in the afternoon, a good and sensible hour. When he finally arrived, it
THE MOVEMENT Today is the first Wednesday of the month, open-door day. I show the visitors around—women, married couples, and men (more and more older
COMPANION SPECIES Every day down the same road toward Jinja Town the dog rides next to the aid worker in the company Land Rover. Sometimes
UTBURDUR Carol’s husband, Charlie, had pneumonia, but still insisted they go out and rake leaves. Charlie had always been mulish, but in old age, it
BLIND MAN (an excerpt) Thanks to the automatic system of the old days, I had been registered as a member of the Association of the
MOTH I was reborn as a moth and knew instantly that I didn’t have much time. You don’t think you’ll feel the lifespan, but you
WORLD CREATION RECIPES From Paris to Siberia, across the whole 20th century (an excerpt) 1. I want to talk about the young lady in
When the dogs had finished their business, they were, for quite some time afterward, unable to disentangle, and the Abbot asked us not to disturb them.
In the evenings Karcsi sat quietly at the table and watched his mother pray. Her lips moved silently through the rosary, and he looked as if he were trying to figure out which part of the prayer she was saying.
After the disaster, all our fears subsided, for everything was now destroyed
Life is so afflicted by clarity and definition these days that the sensations of mystery and beauty I associated with the mist are even more precious to me.
THE OLD MAN AND THE CAT There’s a square on the edge of a busy town. People go there in the late afternoon to sit
SCIENCE Picture the screen of a black and white television glowing in the corner of a dark room. A man’s face in close up.
MY BUTTON EYES I have a big head. My face is flat and doesn’t have cheeks. I have button eyes. I cannot stand on
UNTO THE THIRD GENERATION Under the grey sky, a grey village. Everything is grey: dirty snow in an empty yard, the walls of
Signs (an excerpt) On August 29th, 1646, 120 years after the Battle of Mohács, peasant Juraj Mitana was born, and on the same
A LION IN THE FOREST A forest of beech trees in late April is as neat and tidy as a newly unwrapped present. Fresh tufts
LEGEND 1. During a group therapy session for the emotionally disturbed he said that every spring, when the swallows return from the south, he
SETTING FREE I’m sitting in a gutted armchair in the middle of our dimly lit front hall, biding time. When I’m still, I
REBI I am still half-asleep in the early hours when I hear sirens approaching the farm and it occurs to me that it’s
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FASHION AND FRIENDS The two of you stand in front of the fitting room, he has a pair of trousers in each hand
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CATECHISM Samuel scanned the café, barely aware of its coffee aroma. His facial analysis software said everyone was full-bred white, straight, and gender
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PLACES THAT ARE NOT ON THE MAP (an excerpt) The clock dial on a shelf above the table showed 8:30pm, but it
SHOULDER BIRD This new patient was an eccentric, there was no question. She was nuts, but in a pleasant way. Her nuttiness involved
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BANANA SPLIT With the leftover beer I washed down two pills. I took Xanax to help me sleep. The first few weeks it
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BANNER As usual, John Gozdzik, manager of the bus station in Slonim, did not have too much to do in his office around
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Ever read The Lord of the Rings? I knew it! You look like a reader, you have that kind of face. … So alright, then, listen to my story all the way through, and you’ll catch on. You’ll understand that I couldn’t have done any different.
THE GOOD COUPLE We are aware the ugly sounds coming from us may be overheard by the good couple next door. There is
MOMI Momi was born such an extraordinary beauty that, upon her delivery, the doctor grappled her tightly in his arms and ran around
BIRDCAGE This evening, too, she goes out onto the small balcony and watches the shared yard. One step through the glass door, and
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RESTING PLACE Great and mighty is the River Ob. Swollen with long years of experience, it flows sedately, without haste, as if it
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