At its essence, James R. Gapinski’s Messiah Tortoise is a brief, yet intriguing collection of absurd narratives that take place in zoo settings populated with a diverse array of animals and zoo staff. With each quick story in this colorful menagerie, Gapinski captures readers with his knack for unusual points-of-view, startling predicaments, and unique detail.…

Sherrie Flick’s latest literary offering, Thank Your Lucky Stars, is a collection of fifty short stories with lengths varying from a paragraph of flash fiction to a short story of twenty-one pages. Each is littered with her keen, often touching, observations on relationships and the suburban midwest settings. There are four sections to the book,…

The stories in Renee Simms’ debut collection Meet Behind Mars don’t take place on another planet. They aren’t magical realism, or science fiction, or supernatural. Instead they center on Black women who are on their own frontiers — and only one of them involves the actual atmosphere. That story is “Rebel Airplanes,” in which a…

The characters running through the seventeen stories that make up White Dancing Elephants, Chaya Bhuvaneswar’s debut collection, often find themselves picking up the pieces. They must deal with the consequences of others’ actions, or of their own. The author embraces the POVs of characters from varying, and sometimes overlapping, backgrounds in order to dive headfirst…

At the first glance, Uncommon Miracles is surely a somewhat tautological title. This impression, however, diminishes as one progresses through the collection. We are introduced to worlds casually populated by ghosts, benevolent and not-so-benevolent spirits, magic, travel in time and across dimensions. In such worlds, it is the quiet, often understated, moments of human drama…

Book discovery is a mysterious thing. In 2018, book lovers have Goodreads, Booktube and Bookstagram; overflowing waves of colorful spines in bookstores; the funky algorithms of Amazon; the vast deep well of literary journals and plethora of publishers small and large; the surprisingly literary world of Twitter. The books of the world can blur together…

Writing a review of Christopher Allen’s new book of flash fiction isn’t easy. There is no problem reading the stories and enjoying them, but what should be said about these tiny, remarkable pieces? They are consistently unlike any other stories I’ve read. Allen has two clear gifts as a writer: imagination and intelligence. There are…

Warnings from the Future is the first collection of stories from Ethan Chatagnier. Despite the vivid title, it is not a succession of screeds from an apocalyptic wasteland. In fact, the collection does not adhere to a consistent mode, and as such avoids becoming monotonous. Regionalism is also not strongly emphasized. Fresno, California appears as…

Flash fiction has flourished since the publication of Sudden Fiction in 1983, which included stories no longer than 1,500 words. In 1986, Jerome Stern challenged fiction writers to compress their stories further when he launched The World’s Best Short-Short Story Contest at Florida State University, which limited entries to 250 words. “Trying to write a…

On a list of undervalued American fiction writers, Valerie Trueblood’s name would surely be at the top. Within a decade she’s published a novel and three fantastic collections that showcase a unique and vibrant style. In her fourth collection — Terrarium: New and Selected Stories — highlights from her previous books appear alongside fresh work…

I was a teenager in the late 80’s and early 90’s, when AIDS became a prominent part of the American news cycle. I remember the panic and fear. The campaigns on television and the assemblies in high school simultaneously promoting abstinence and condom use. Rampant misinformation, fueled by prejudice and wild rumors, filled the vacuum…

Floating Notes by Babak Lakghomi is in equal parts sure-footed and disorienting. Beyond simply telling a story, the experimental thriller works to involve the reader in the experience of paranoia. In 100 pages, segmented in short bursts of language, Lakghomi creates an immersive text that grapples with absurdity and alienation. The narrative is remincient of…