By: Joe Lyons

“What happened to my best hammer last spring?”

By: Jeff Turrentine

My dad wasn’t a bastard at all.

By: Wayne Koestenbaum

“I’m not to blame for the rancid walnuts that enter my body.”

By: Scarlett Thomas

I walked home from the corner shop imagining the hot wax dripping onto my naked skin.

By: Rob Baedeker

Ray-Ray was a bundle of contradictions.

By: Rosecrans Baldwin

Totem of North American Perry Atlas.

By: Rob Agredo

“You lose,” she puffed.

By: Neil LaBute

Mine alone to keep or to take home or to play with as I wished.

By: Blake Butler

The globe containing UTAH made a burning sound against my head.

By: Merrill Markoe

What if you are the kind of person who wishes to remember the bad times?

By: Matthew Klam

There is a loud clicking sound coming from the control module.

By: Curtis Sittenfeld

Larry just flat-out adored me.

By: Susanna Daniel

She said, “You’re strong, and I bet you can swim like a fish,” and I said, “Better to be a shark than a seal.”

By: Tim Carvell

“Love is a precursor to sorrow.” “Joy fades.” “Pets die.”

By: Susannah Breslin

“ALL AMERICAN OFFICIAL NECKING TEAM,” the pin read. It was hard to reconcile the words with my father.