While his children bickered and his wife ignored him, Charlie tugged at the thin paper flap of a packet of tea. His eyes scanned the breakfast buffet line. If he […]
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Tag: fiction
“Departure” by Richard Helmling
On the first day, the sky went out. Davis had trouble remembering what they’d been doing when the noise started. Whatever it had been, they had carried on unperturbed. When […]
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The Metaworker Podcast – Little Gem Magnolia by Paul Rabinowitz
Episode Description: Editors Matthew, Elena, Darin, and Melissa talk to Paul Rabinowitz about his piece Little Gem Magnolia and its surreal mix of genres. We touch on New Orleans, art, […]
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“The Crack Up” by Steve Carr
Morning, a hot wind blowing from the east sent the tall yellow prairie grass bowing in ripples toward the old house. Colin leaned against the wood post to the barbed […]
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“The Road to Gold Ridge” by Jennifer Swallow
The photos on the website of the Gold Ridge Inn showed a log structure with a wrap-around porch and a hitching post for the horses of gold miners long gone. […]
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“The Red Worm” by Isaac Aday
Sam Karrington’s size-six loafers kicked back and forth atop the wooden bench under the train stop awning. The train would be here soon, he thought—no need to get too comfortable. […]
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“Cattail Confessions” by Hannah Melin
I’ve fallen in love with all of them. How could I not? With their skin so soft I can watch it give way beneath my fingerprints like silt at the […]
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“Clouds” by Adam Kelly Morton
Honey’s Pub is loud with live music, and there’s a full pint of lager in front of me. If I drink it, it’ll be my first in seven years. I […]
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“Tree Song” by Melissa Reynolds
I have stood for over a hundred years in this place, endured the idiots who link hands and try to encompass my bulk, observed the overprepared hiker complete with stuffed […]
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“Naked Cake” by Scott Mitchel May
There is something sad about an unfrosted and forgotten about sheet cake — the kind of sheet cake when if finished would be eaten at the office and in celebration […]
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“Spinning the Sensualist” by Michael Grotsky
One lost Saturday night, around the last rays of the summer that never was, Yoshimi and William-James, one of the finer couples in their little town of exiles, invited Morrison […]
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“Barrow” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
The darkness should be the first clue, like it was not just a memory but an encounter, both in past and present: of the future. Or some thing who remembers […]
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“Taco Dreams” by William Torphy
Peg had made good on her resolution to leave West Virginia, and here he was in San Francisco, seasonless though it was Spring, sleeping on her new couch when what […]
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“So Dark, Up Above” by Emily Ruth Taylor
Sure, no one ever said that people were getting their powers from the rain. Tommy guessed it had something to do with all those big companies that owned the factories […]
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“Pink” by Izzy Martens
The small pink tube is pressed into the palm of my right hand. I am flicking the lid with my thumb, finding satisfaction in the incessant beat of the lever […]
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“Arizona Rattlesnakes” by E.G. Farrelly
“How d’ya s’ppose we git outta this here situation?” “Well, the cars are over there.” “Sure are.” “That’s probably our best bet out of here.” “’Cept how we gonna git […]
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“Off the Deep End” by Richard Risemberg
It was the kind of bar that would have had to struggle up several rungs of the social ladder to be considered a dive. Not that the clientele of “The […]
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“Romulus” by Charles Rafferty
It wasn’t like that. Our mother suckled us for years in the rank, familiar den. She chewed the deer meat until it was a fine paste she could drop into […]
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“The Night the Billado Block Burned Down” by Elizabeth Gauffreau
Then the Billado Block burned down, and I had nowhere to live. “Well, shit,” I said to the guy standing next to me watching it burn, “what am I supposed […]
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“South of the Nipple” by Paul Negri
It was just beneath the nipple of her heaving right breast. “What’s that?” asked Bordelli. Clarice didn’t seem to hear him. She kept bucking her hips and tightening her leg […]
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“Stripped” by James la Vigne
Having little to his name when he died, the reading of Henry Fromm’s will went quickly. Nothing surprising or contentious. On paper he never did anything surprising or contentious. He […]
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“I guess I never told you about Texas” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
I guess I never told you about Texas, long and sweet in the evening, boiling jelly, about mom’s temperature, stuck in the oven: The best and worst part of the […]
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“One Day” by Rebekah Ricksecker
6:47 AM The darkness turns gray; the misty fog rests over the water; the honeysuckle perfumes the air as white petals float on the still water. 7:03 AM Beneath the […]
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“The cops have Julia” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
I knew already, struck with the phantasm of a dream that I had taken the reins of my life at last. Like a drowning man finding the hole in the […]
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The Missing Brutal Honesty in the Final Walk-Through with the Soon-To-Be-Ex-Tenant by Erika Murdey
Entry Door Yes No Damage to exterior? X Interior? X [The lease says “no nails,” but upon her arrival in December it was a matter of days before […]
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“45th Parallel” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
We will not subside, for there can be no epiphany; we march into the sand for the egrets, hunting them with our knives. No other faith is real to me […]
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“Buddy” by Benjamin Austin
“Pickup for Angelo.” He leaned on the counter. “For who?” “Angelo.” He jerked his chin up—he had been told he mumbled. He had a deep voice and people often had […]
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“Ice Cream or Moxie” by Kristy Gherlone
In the heat of the summer, back when Willow’s mother slipped in and out of lunacy, sometimes she’d wake up at night to find her sitting on the edge of […]
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“Ship Inside a Bottle” by Charles Rafferty
Her new boyfriend had a ship inside a bottle. You’d ask him how he got it in there, and he’d act like you had to be a […]
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“The Hitchhiker” by Michael T. Smith
It was late enough that she didn’t even feel tired anymore. Clarissa squinted so hard her eyes hurt. She tried see through the fogged-over windshield as the onslaught of rain […]
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“Icing” by Melissa Bobe
She’d had a cupcake for breakfast every day for the last month. Thick on the icing, more often than not with sprinkles, occasionally filled with sweet cream or more icing. […]
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“The Confession of the Watcher at the Bell” by K.A. Liedel
The peace inside the giant glass bell is almost always short-lived. Soon the translucent, riblike curves will spark with electric-blue orbs, followed by clouds of glittering cosmic dust, followed again […]
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“This is What We Do Now” by Becky Shirley
You come home, half gallon of milk in one hand, the other snaking around my waist. Head buried in my shoulder, no words, just small noises that I can feel […]
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“Jigsaw” by Amber West
I was born a human jigsaw puzzle. I emerged from my mother’s womb, not as a whole baby, but in scattered pieces. The doctors worked non-stop as they assembled me. […]
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“Truth Conditions” by Natalie Einselen
Tsuki Amai’s wristwatch emitted a soft click, and she tugged gently at her ear to make sure, for the tenth time that day, that she was awake. Her mother hated […]
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“The Death of Paul Shephard” by Kristoffer Newsom
They rode together in silence for some time, the old man and the young one. Paul looked out the window, his blue eyes cloudy with cateracts, his vision clouded with […]
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“The Watcher” by Jenna Crosier
Every year, from the first I was assigned to the graveyard, I would watch the headstones from my place upon the highest pine tree. My job was to make sure […]
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“The Living Dead” by John Short
I opened my eyes, emerging from a dream but couldn’t remember anything at all. Shame really because I’d always considered dream space a bit like going to the cinema without […]
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“Blood Orange Soda” by Maya Rahman-Rios
Wait until your mother and brother have left the house. Then, call him. Four oh eight, five five five, seven three eight oh. You’ve had the number memorized since he […]
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“In Sartre Ward” by Michael Paul Hogan
To be man means to reach toward being God. Or, if you prefer, man fundamentally is the desire to be God. Jean-Paul Sartre I am a prisoner, wrongfully […]
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“GET A JOB, LOS ANGELES” by Tadeu Bijos
Dude driving, dude driving vast expanses, dude fucking up on the GPS, dude asking for directions, dude getting off on the right off-ramp and hitting the ocean after three blocks. Dude making […]
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“Casualties, or I can’t f*#!ing understand this Ikea Diagram” by Dani Neiley
Hello, everyone! It’s Friday again and we’ve got another extra thing to share. When we were all talking, we realized we’ve all shared some of our writing on this blog […]
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Excerpt from “He’s Gone”
We at The Metaworker are excited to bring you something a little different this Friday. We’ve been given the opportunity to work with Impress Books, an independent publisher in the […]
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“Buzz Hunt” by Adam St. Pierre
I don’t know how long we were up on that hillside, just Paul and me. We sat in a shallow trench, bundled up against the blowing snow and […]
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“Bathsheba Beckons” by Fred Owens
Tom Blethen faced two fifty foot rows of potatoes. He looked up at the December sky. It had rained, the field was all muddy, and it was going to rain again. […]
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“A Dream About a Sky That is a Sea” by Meli Ewing
I am getting off the school bus at the top of the driveway in the afternoon on a Friday. In real life, there were only two years where my parents […]
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“The Lunch Bucket Game” by Ronnie Clark
So I’m sittin’ in the lunchroom of the factory one day, chattin’ up the new gal. She was a secretary. Name of Suzie. Only been there like two weeks. We […]
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“Write” by Elena Lucia Perez
Sit up straight, feet flat, pen poised – ready? Now don’t think, just write what comes to mind. Don’t pick up your pen, just keep writing. I’m going to time […]
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“Tinder” by Tadeu Bijos
Last week in the park, a small, violent dog kept sniffing the ass of a much larger, more docile dog. The sniff was aggressive and strangely confident; it felt incomplete existing only […]
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“One Girl” by Ellen Webre
One girl bakes a hundred cupcakes and gives them away for free. One girl wastes perfectly good eggs on a car. One girl’s dog gets fat from all the junk […]
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“Battlegrounds” by Marina Shugrue
The needle pricks my skin and I gasp as I shake out my hand. A little speck of red blood lands on the grey flooring. I take my towel and […]
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“Bandile” by Darin Milanesio
Out by the creek behind our home, the moon and stars reflect off the water, and Bandile would often go out there. The trees were big, but he could still […]
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“Catfish” by Amethyst Hope Hethcoat
My room is black as an Olympic runner—except for the illuminated screen of my Sony Vaio which radiates like Chernobyl. My laptop is cherry red; vibrant and bold and sophisticated, […]
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“The Last Time I Spoke to Penelope” by Matthew Maichen
She led me out of my house in the middle of the night. I went with her because she was moving away the next day, and because I loved her. […]
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