An ordinary day in Ávila darkens following a neighborly intervention.
Setting a succulent into the window box outside, Maria spotted the boys from 2D in the courtyard below. Three brick buildings an…
Fiction
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Photo by Joachim Pressl on Unsplash A few days into a third lockdown, a cat and her human companion have differing views about how to handle an army of slugs attacking the petunias.…
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Photo by Abigail Keenan on Unsplash A young woman with two degrees and no job hits the streets of Palermo looking for work with only a Dorothy Parker poem to sustain her. Ratty sli…
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In Colombian writer Octavio Escobar Giraldo’s first publication in English, it isn’t only the parishioner saying her Hail Marys. “I confess, Father. I confess that I am h…
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In this fraught meeting between father and daughter, a woman rescues what she can from an estranged relationship. two weeks ago, when i saw my father, i wrote, “dear diary, this morn…
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A woman gives birth in a room where all the windows are covered with pages of a book to be burned. The woman inside, the women outside: all wait for the author. Luz is going to scream. She…
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A girl executes her escape plan, with one unexpected twist at the end. She walks through the house. It’s quiet now; everyone’s sleeping. Behind the bedroom door she can hear he…
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Photo by Ivy Yung on Unsplash Written in the early stages of the pandemic, this fairytale-like story finds a man looking to shape his environment to reflect the fragility of life—on…
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Photo by Greg Rakozy & Alfons Morales on Unsplash In this short story from Japan, the narrator—who is disappearing organ by organ—dissolves into a library as encompassing…
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In a dimly lit crypt, a woman loses her way and finds her thoughts toggling between a mysterious man in the dark tunnel and a childhood friend. The sun was setting when she got off the bus…
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Artwork from Lwapula Province / Courtesy of Dr. Christine Saidi, Kutztown University The Aushi are an ethnolinguistic group located in the Lwapula Province of the Republic of Zambia and i…
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A woman’s writing, and routine, are disrupted when she meets a man on a bicycle. The signorina Maddalena Rubí has a passion for poetry. She writes a little after dinner each night,…
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Each Saturday evening, they would meet, braiding and unbraiding their hair in a synchronized rhythm. But then one night, everything changed. On Saturday nights, they braided. They all wore…
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Jerusalem is ultimately a city of eternal strangers. The connection to the city is not a connection to place, but rather a connection to time. Here, on the watershed of the winds, between…
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Why would a girl of fourteen choose a minor key? Let Chopin carry you away, just as he does Nina, who brings the revolution to the keys of a prewar Steinway. “Nina, you’r…
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Photo by Shahin Khalaji on Unsplash Narrated by a chorus of male voices, this story recounts the details of an incident that occurred in a company of only male employees, triggered by the…
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Rimini, Italy / Photo by Letizia Agosta / Unsplash Find a spot near some water and let yourself be transported to the Italian seaside in this story of two teens who meet on the beach and…
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“Anatomy of the mouth” by liverpoolhls is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 In the dentist’s chair with mouth wide open, a patient contemplates her tongue’s relationship…
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Photo by Serj Tyaglovsky / Unsplash With two weeks of food and the outside world covered in cellophane, apartment dwellers under a stay-at-home order get to know their neighbors as things…
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Photo by Olga Serjantu / Unsplash Whatever happened in the neighborhood, ‘Ubayd was said to be behind it. Disappearing water pumps and gas cylinders, broken streetlights, and fires in…
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“We Don't Care Broken Window Theory” by Zak MC is licensed under CC by SA 2.0 Old Acquaintance Having met by chance, they hugged. “Long time no see!” the men chor…
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“I love you" by @Doug88888 / flickr People believe, Marie thinks, even when there’s no proof. You believe because you imagine. But is imagination enough to live by?…
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In the Karl Liebknecht House in Leipzig, Germany, thirty people of various nationalities are seated around an improvised table on the stage in the Events Hall, interpreters behind them, some wit…
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Photo: Elia Pellegrini / Unsplash Over time you realize that the only thing you can do is to comfort. Before my grandmother passed, having already dwindled away, she would hold my hand tightl…
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Photo: Oxa Roxa / Unsplash Looking for her dead wife, a woman finds an unusual bonsai with mythical connections and a few complaints. Laurel, without shoes, wandered aimlessly from…