SINGLES MIXER

If we’re both here, who’s watching the kids?
by Jared Smith

 

LIMBO

Born, schooled, travelled, worked, married, bred, divorced. Then he met Pete.
by Susanna Gendall

 

THE WAY MY SISTER APOLOGIZES

She digs her thumbnail into her own arm-flesh to make a matching scar.
by Gania Barlow

 

AFTER THE DIET

The twenty-one days were finished, and he knew just what to do with his freedom.
by Amanda Bloom

 

FIRST DEPLOYMENT

The ants trickled across her windowsill as if they knew she needed company.
by Anita Lo

 

SHE LEARNED TO SAY IT THAT WAY

He wanted a family. She didn’t think she did. 
by Cynthia Newberry Martin

 

INDUSTRY DISRUPTION

The first time the Lumière brothers showed a film, it was part of a magic show.
by Emily Ludolph

 

SOMEWHERE IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

She will not go to school. She's to be a wife.
by Erhu Amreyan

 

THINGS KEITH BROKE

The land speed record. Both shins. His promise. The law. Peggy's heart.
by Chris Vander Kaay

 

LEFT TURN

My mother's grave is on the way to Albuquerque and I hate old cartoons now.
by Robin Sinclair

 

Jared Smith lives in Atlanta. His writing has appeared in McSweeney's, Marx and Philosophy, Philosophiegeschichte und logische Analyse, and other such humorous places. He has won pub trivia on three continents.

 

Susanna Gendall is a New Zealand writer based in France. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in several journals including JAAM, Sport, Takahe, and Ambit.

 

Gania Barlow is a scholar of medieval English literature and teaches at Oakland University in Michigan.

 

Amanda Bloom's work is published or forthcoming in Storm Cellar, New Haven Review, The Atlantic, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Read more at amandabloom.com.

 

Anita Lo hails from Washington, works in New York, and is not a restaurateur.

 

Cynthia Newberry Martin usually uses a lot of words and was delighted to use only a few here. On Twitter, she’s @catchingdays. P.S.—She wants to be wilder.

 

Emily Ludolph spends her free time at the Brooklyn Public Library. She has published in Quartz, TED online, Designer Observer, and Narratively. www.emilyludolph.com

 

Erhu Amreyan is a writer from Nigeria. She is an esthetics enthusiast and a sucker for everything made by Studio Ghibli and Harlequin.

 

Chris Vander Kaay has been published at McSweeney's, had three published educational books about film history, and is a contributing writer at Screen Rant and Bloody-Disgusting.com.

 

Robin Sinclair writes spooky things, queer things, and human-conditiony things. Links to poetry, stories, and graphic novels can be found at RobinSinclairBooks.com.