short stories

Jeremy Tiang's It Never Rains on National Day

It Never Rains on National Day: an interview with writer Jeremy Tiang

  Jeremy Tiang is a fiction writer, playwright, and translator from Singapore. His short story collection It Never Rains on National Day was published by Epigram Books in 2015, and is available at Epigram Books’ website. He lives in Brooklyn and was recently featured in the Singapore Writers Festival. We caught up in an email interview. Xin…

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The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “Once You Learn, You Never Forget” by Anthony Varallo

Few images are more boilerplate in capturing the parental role of ushering a child towards independence than that of parent teaching a child how to ride a bike—the pushing, the holding, the letting go, the tears. In “Once You Learn, You Never Forget” (Cimarron Review), Anthony Varallo resurrects this image from cliché into a complicated…

Review: NOTHING LOOKS FAMILIAR by Shawn Syms
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Review: NOTHING LOOKS FAMILIAR by Shawn Syms

NOTHING LOOKS FAMILIAR Shawn Syms Arsenal Pulp Press Published in Canada September 2014; available elsewhere since May 2015 184 pages $15.95 Buy paperback | NOOK | Kindle Complex characters are damn hard to write. Perhaps this explains why contemporary fiction is full of characters designed to be relatable and easily digestible. These sort of characters act as mere…

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The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “Stamp Fever” by Colette Inez

What constitutes the difference between delusion and imagination? Where does one end and the other begin, or are they related at all? Colette Inez explores these intersections in her story “Stamp Fever” (The Georgia Review), from the perspective of a young boy struggling to overcome family difficulties. Our introduction to the young protagonist comes when he…

The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “Volcano Climber” by Courtney Craggett
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The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “Volcano Climber” by Courtney Craggett

Augustine of Hippo wrote “Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” In her short story “Volcano Climber” (Juked), Courtney Craggett explores the nature of the first of Hope’s beautiful daughters, anger. We meet…

The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “Love” by Clarice Lispector
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The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “Love” by Clarice Lispector

There have been many craft essays written over the last few decades arguing the merits of the classic Joyce-ian epiphany. In “Love,” (The Offing), Clarice Lispector (translated by Katrina Dodson) explores the nature of epiphanies, and perhaps more importantly, what we do with them once they happen. We meet the protagonist Ana as she’s returning…

The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “Fanfare” by Bruno Nelson
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The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “Fanfare” by Bruno Nelson

Wake up one morning and go to the nearest busy street and sit down on a bench and watch how people walk. Their gait, their posture, their stride, their tempo—these could all tell us a little something about their lives and how they interact with the world. I see voice in fiction operating in the…