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Issue 24 / August - September 2010

A Passionate Affair by Katri Skala

  When Jackie noticed Mark was spending an unusual amount of time locked in the downstairs loo before coming to bed, she intuited it was more than a desire to have a quiet evacuation.  He had always been a fastidious... More...

Thursday, 5 August, 2010

New voices

Never Better by A. C. Goodwin

If there's anything I hate more than life insurance salesmen it's the way they're such complete hypocrites.  When this guy comes to my door I think to myself 'You know what, Paul, the sad thing is this guy doesn't even... More...

Friday, 25 June, 2010

The Spy by Connor Caddigan

-1-   Like so many men who live in this neighbourhood of deserted factories and crowded taverns, George Fenner is finding it difficult to idle away the dwindling hours of October daylight.  On the steps of his front porch he... More...

Tuesday, 30 March, 2010

(1) by Dorothy Feaver

Nat and her fiancé were very much together, although they hadn't set a date; it was hard, on their combined income, to do themselves justice. James had pulled his thumb out and started a law conversion course, and in the... More...

Thursday, 25 February, 2010

The Coat Room by Orlando Whitfield

It wasn't until a few years after everyone had stopped thinking about his turning fifty that my teacher actually celebrated his birthday. That is to say, he stopped mourning its passing and gathered people together in recognition of this change... More...

Wednesday, 27 January, 2010

Christmas Eve, 1982 by Philip Langeskov

There are children across the street now. That's another thing that's changed. There are three of them, two boys and a girl. They were out this morning, early, tearing across the lawn as if nothing in the world could be... More...

Tuesday, 22 December, 2009

Character studies

Gail by Rowan Somerville

Gail sits at her computer at a bow legged circular table, crowded with books unwatered plants, a cloche covering a bunch of leaves - black with age, a lit candle, a red rose encased in Perspex and a pair of... More...

Thursday, 5 August, 2010

Dirty Norma by Samantha Hunt

In a coffee shop on Dead Elm Street, Norma assembles the chicken bones on her plate into an arrow pointing at her stomach. Once, in a magazine, she'd seen a picture of a hen split open down the breast, unzipped... More...

Friday, 25 June, 2010

Miriam by Robin Black

Miriam was fighting a cold.  She wanted to be fighting it in bed, tended by Ezra and wrapped in a comforter.  She wanted, in general, to be comforted, but instead she was making her way through an inexplicably crowded sidewalk,... More...

Friday, 7 May, 2010

Glen Williams of Robinsville, PA, USA, Night Janitor by Matthew Quick

Once they were gone, he emptied their home of everything but his bed, his desk, the clothes in his closet, kitchen table, refrigerator, washer, dryer, and two chairs, one for eating, and one for writing letters.  Pictures, couches, wardrobes, the... More...

Tuesday, 30 March, 2010

Charlie Boat by Ben Ockrent

Everyone knew what New York looked like. Especially from a boat that should have passed the Statue of Liberty on its way in to dock. For him to have mistaken this for that was unimaginable. For him to have had... More...

Wednesday, 7 October, 2009

The Old Apartment by Maile Chapman

The gate was open when we got there. Someone had plowed the driveway recently, and the front steps had clearly been shoveled, but more snow had fallen and every surface appeared unbroken in the moonlight.  The lace curtains were hospitable... More...

Thursday, 5 August, 2010

Short stories

Chattering by Louise Stern

Time alone was hard to find in Alex's house. He timed his trips to the toilet so that he would have time to have a good look at himself in the mirror. Their house only had one bathroom, and most... More...

Thursday, 24 June, 2010

The Hawk by Thomas Trofimuk

It was 4 a.m. and he'd fallen asleep in a most uninviting chair. A nurse woke him up. There was something about palliative care nurses that Pinsky liked - a sort of resigned kindness - a grace and an implied... More...

Tuesday, 30 March, 2010

Signalling by Amy Sackville

Susan stares at the road ahead, determinedly speechless, feeling lightheaded and tired and irritable. Beside her Richard drives with just one finger on the wheel as if to annoy her on purpose. Occasionally clicking his tongue against his teeth, barely... More...

Thursday, 25 February, 2010

Homecoming by Simon Lelic

The cold: that is how she knows. The cold and the pressure against the door as she tries to force it wide, as though a body were leant against it on the inside, slumped on the doormat with hunched back... More...

Wednesday, 27 January, 2010

The Mud Man by Benjamin Percy

Thomas is weeding when it happens, when he hacks at the cheat grass and goosegrass choking his daffodils and rips up pubic clumps of the stuff with a garden claw that makes a silvery arc in the air when driven... More...

Tuesday, 22 December, 2009

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