These are excerpts from The Book of Jim, texts written in homage to the poet Ray González, my former poetry teacher at The University of Minnesota. I imagined both what would make Ray slightly smile or what might make him write a very large exclamation point on the page as a response to a prose…

People call to give us their cats because we are a shelter. People call to give us their cats because they are moving to Oregon. People call to give us their cats even though they are not the kind of people who give up their cats. People call to give us their cats because their…

At three in the morning, the redheaded skater from LA who lives in room 307 gets back from a party. He goes into the bathroom and wrinkles his nose; there’s the usual piss and Clorox smell but also the unmistakable waft of puke. Standing at the urinal, he thinks he hears something, a hitched breath,…

He knew it was her the moment he entered the park. She sat on a bench, her back straight and legs crossed, holding a knee with both hands. The park had once been a wealthy family’s private rock garden.

Something is killing people. We noticed them missing too late, pretending as if all our friends and coworkers had decided to visit their childhood homes, far off in foreign-sounding cities, but forgot to tell us they were leaving. Except no one’s on vacation. They’re gone. Our newly developed neighborhood is nearly empty now. Sometimes cars…

In these days between solstice and the new year we bring you a gathering of writers responding to the turn of seasons and time. Today we are pleased to share writing by Rachel M. Hollis, Bethany Bruno, Gabriella Navas, Caroline Clark, Vaughn M. Watson, Elodie Ashcroft, Gideon Leek, Kathryn Reese, Emil DeAndreis, Michael Hyde, and…

In these days between solstice and the new year we bring you a gathering of writers responding to the turn of seasons and time. Today we are pleased to share writing by Tom McAllister, Candice M. Kelsey, sid sibo, Kathleen Hellen, Philippa Bowe, Kathryn Edie, Chris Scott, Michael Colonnese, David Capps, and Sarah Starr Murphy.

In these days between solstice and the new year we bring you a gathering of writers responding to the turn of seasons and time. Today we are pleased to share writing by Mizuki Yamamoto, Catherine Reedy, Kendra Cardin, Gareth E. Rees, Catherine Gammon, Erin Keane, Kleopatra Olympiou, Lleyton Michael Kane, and Warren Stoddard II.

In these days between solstice and the new year we bring you a gathering of writers responding to the turn of seasons and time. Today we are pleased to share writing by Rosaleen Lynch, Travis Flatt, Raymond Brunell, Eileen Frankel Tomarchio, Jane Yager, Talya Byrd, Carol M. Quinn, Tanya Kornilovich, and Joe Kalovac.

The man was with his seven-year-old daughter, Jamie, when the doorbell rang. He opened the door. It was their cleaner. She said, ‘Is that your dead dog?’  ‘No,’ he said reflexively. She looked confused. ‘It’s on the road.’ Jamie’s mouth wobbled. The man said to the cleaner and to Jamie, but mostly to Jamie, ‘I…

Sunday, and Hunter wanted pancakes. The coffee machine gurgled and sighed like a sick horse. “There’s no syrup,” Liz said. Denis poured a cup and looked out the window at the backyard, which was too hopeless to even begin fixing up: loose netting, rusted metal rods, a square patch of dirt dug up for what…

I volunteered for the firing squad because no woman had ever done it before. At least the assistant warden said he couldn’t remember any. The records were murky. They kept them classified and low-tech, and you needed a special key and four forms in order to get a look, which was probably for the best.…