Ginnie and Roger were already planning next year’s trip, when they’d just arrived for this year’s annual family vacation, one of the lesser Caribbean islands with a Catholic-sounding name. They preferred to just call it Paradise, as in Next year in Paradise we’ll rent a car for the far beach, the one with the goats. When their daughter Maxine was little, Roger would hoist her on his shoulders to hang their bag of peanut butter sandwiches from a high branch so the mangy gray goats couldn’t nuzzle for a bite. By next year, Maxine’s baby would be old enough to make goat sounds, if Ginnie sang “Old MacDonald’s Farm” like she used to with Maxine.
Fiction
Cara
It’s strange to grow old. I feel I’m the same person inside. All my life I was around people more or less my own age, and suddenly there are hardly any left. I think about death all the time. I guess you could say I’m apprehensive. I don’t want to suffer. I live my life as if my actions could make a difference, but I suppose at heart I’m a fatalist. Whatever happens, happens. I have to accept the fact that my efforts might not have the results I want them to have.
The Revelation of Everything (excerpt)
Snow fell again like feathers tumbling from the sky and when they hit the concrete, they dissolved into a clear liquid.
The old joke that Phoenix used to tell Jalen when it snowed back in Cross River was that he’d spotted two snowflakes that were exactly alike. It was never that funny, or even original, but year after year he’d tell it and cackle as loudly as he did the first time Pop Pop or his father (he couldn’t remember who told him the joke) first said it way back when he was five or six. Now, Jalen wasn’t around to hear the joke. Cliff was, but he was a poor substitute. It seemed he had forgotten how to laugh.
Faith, by Maggie Parr
Maggie Parr is a finalist in the 2009 Literary Awards Program. Below is an excerpt from her entry, Faith.
The Crux, by Michael Richardson
The skin of my fingertips is tender from the long climb the day before, stripped down to the thinnest of layers; pink and newborn. I touch the cool morning rock. An ocean breeze blows in past the knuckled headland, curling down the inlet and up the brushy slope to the base of the crag where [...]
The Most Important Thing in the World, conclusion, by Adam Sturtevant
Adam Sturtevant is the third place winner in the 2009 SFWP Literary Awards program. We’re excerpting a story from his winning collection, Ease Chest Tuck Hid Debt Art.
The Most Important Thing in the World, part one of two, by Adam Sturtevant
Adam Sturtevant is the third place winner in the 2009 SFWP Literary Awards program. We’re excerpting a story from his winning collection, Ease Chest Tuck Hid Debt Art.
This One Last Thing, part two of two, by Nicole Louise Reid
Nicole Reid is the second place winner in the 2009 Literary Awards Program. Below is the first section of her entry, This One Last Thing.
This One Last Thing, part one of two, by Nicole Louise Reid
Nicole Reid is the second place winner in the 2009 Literary Awards Program. This week, we’ll be excerpting from the prologue and the first section of her entry, This One Last Thing.
Listening for Life, part two of two, by Matthew Pitt
Matthew Pitt was the the 2009 Literary Awards Program Grand Prize-winner, selected by judge Pagan Kennedy. This is the second half of Chapter Three from his winning entry, Listening for Life. Catch the first part right here.