Fiction

I met my wife in Palau. Here’s how you find Palau on a map: Look for San Juan, then look for the farthest point from it. It was a dive trip my father had promised when I started college. By the time I had my BA, we hadn’t spoken for nearly ten months. Still, I…

Cuauh always greases the landings. If the winds are strong, he lands in the desert north of Obregon, on a sand strip outlined by burning tar barrels, desert oak, and split saguaro cut lengthwise to catch the neon sun. But if the winds are calm, Cuauh lumbers his aircraft, an aging M20J, onto a neighborhood…

Translated from the Hebrew by Yardenne Greenspan Harmony Dreams may be the soul’s Autocorrect, but one man dreamt he was sitting in a fridge, freezing and waiting for someone to open the door. Before his savior’s identity was revealed, he woke up in complete darkness and was surprised to find it was only 3 a.m….

An old woman believes that her Christmas tree wants to get married. Her caretaker says: —No, it’s just a tree. See? Come here! Feel it! The old woman feels a branch. —Oh, you’re right, it is a tree. But the old woman is still worried. —But inside…inside, there is a woman who wants to come…

To you who eat a lot of rice because you are lonely To you who sleep a lot because you are bored To you who cry a lot because you are sad I write this down. Chew on your feelings that are cornered Like you would chew on rice. Anyway life is something that you…

I went to my father’s room in the back hall of the boarding house. The door was open a little, and I could see he was asleep. An old sheet was pulled up to his neck, and he lay looking at the white ceiling with his eyes closed, breathing softly. His foot stuck out at…

None of us are gone. You may call us gone. You may moan. You may dash from the places where you would sit and you thought we wouldn’t find you. You mourn our loss, we know. You walk on the floorboards of the house as if you were alone, eyeing every corner. Your habits stay…

The woman was weeks away. Maybe even days away. The phone calls at first were difficult to understand. “You shouldn’t worry about this, but I’m getting thinner,” she said to her daughter, but instead of the note of excitement the girl expected, the woman sounded lost. “There’s less of me.” The girl imagined an old…

Translated from the Arabic by the author and C. J. Collins Peace Agreement Strong and Weak signed a peace agreement; Weak had the document framed in a gold frame and hung it in the front room of his house. He called a press conference to publicize the event with photographs and articles. He considered it…