The story of the week for April 6 to 10 is…
A Prescription by Jinjia Grace Hu
All posts by Tim
JINJIA GRACE HU: A Prescription
Sixty grams of blighted wheat. Twenty grams of licorice. Ten dried dates. One longan. Four rose buds, and a few Goji berries.
A note I found tucked in the very back of Ma’s bottom drawer two weeks after her death, three years after Pa’s. A Chinese herbal prescription for heartbreak.
Jinjia Grace Hu was born in Nanjing, China, and lives in New York with her cat, Almond. She is an MFA candidate in creative writing at Columbia University. Her stories appear or are forthcoming in The First Line, The Bloomin’ Onion, Bright Flash Literary Review, and elsewhere.
CANDACE WEBB: I Insisted on the Beach, and Now This Rock Will Determine the Fate of Our Marriage
I frisbee the flattest rock into the water. The ocean roars, but you are silent, arms folded, looking away from me. Sullen because you hate the beach. I hold my breath and wait to see if the rock will skip. If it does, I stay. If it doesn’t, I leave.
Candace Webb (she/her) writes from Belmont, MA on the traditional territory of the Pawtucket people and the Massachusetts tribal nation, where she lives with her partner, two children, and two cats. Her human companions are tame; her cats are not. You can find her work in Five on the Fifth, Emerge Literary Journal, and Defenestration. Her work was nominated for the Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize anthologies in 2022, and she was a finalist in Room Magazine’s 2022 Short Forms Contest. She is a reader for Flash Fiction Magazine.
JS O’KEEFE: Murmuration
Thoughts and actions begin, and go nowhere.
Birds are different. A wing shifts, a body turns, and it passes through the whole flock. They take off as one, landing somewhere far.
If birds are capable of holding a conviction, it’s that evolution is not all it’s cracked up to be.
J.S. O’Keefe’s work spans short stories, essays, and poems. They have been featured in a variety of publications, including AntipodeanSF, Roi Faineant, 101 Words, Everyday Fiction, Spillwords, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, 50 Word Stories, ScribesMicro, Dissident Voice, 50GT, etc.
OLIVER CUBILLOS: A Tropical Staycation at the Statue of Liberty Lagoon Motel
Mama’s rubbing sunscreen all over my face.
“We’re at the White House,” I say.
“No,” Mama says. “The Statue of Liberty, but not the real one, neither.”
Lotion gets in my eye, and I start to cry.
“Washington’s born here, y’know,” she says, and for a moment I believe her.
Oliver Cubillos is a writer and filmmaker from Los Angeles, California. He holds a BFA in Media Arts Production with a minor in literature from Emerson College. His work is published or forthcoming in Heavy Feather Review, BULL Magazine, Free Flash Fiction, and elsewhere.
JOHN H. DROMEY: Mixed Signals
Not a jealous bone in his body—robots are made of metal after all—Rob should have been the perfect bodyguard, an unlikely rival for the affections of Jim’s girlfriend.
Programmed to be charming, entertaining, and attentive, Rob stole both her heart and the tickets for Jim’s planned honeymoon cruise.
John H. Dromey has had short fiction, humor, and poetry published in many different venues.
SHANTI CHANDRASEKHAR: Banana Bundt Cakes
She bakes me in different sizes, adding vanilla pudding inside, warm like her heart no one sees. I’m frosty, they say, eyeing my cream cheese icing—the pudding, the interior, unseen. They swallow bundtinis, bite into bundtlets, slice bundt cakes. They cut or bite or swallow my heart. Like hers.
Shanti Chandrasekhar, who savors every bit of banana bundt cakes, wrote this story based on a prompt.
STORY OF THE MONTH: March 2026
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for March were:
Return of the Muse by Bob Thurber
Busy not missing you by Zoe M.
self-conference by Maria Cargille
Can’t Tell You Why by Bob Thurber
Where I Would’ve Held Her by Tad K.
The winner of the March 2026 Story of the Month is…
Can’t Tell You Why
Editor’s Note: You might be curious why Bob Thurber has two stories up as finalists for the same Story of the Month award! I typically only post one story per month from each author, but I group stories into months based on when the Story of the Week post goes up, which sometimes slides into the next month. That was the case with Return of the Muse, which was posted on February 26 but fell into the March story of the month window.
LAURA BYRNE: Waves
Her hair grew longer each day, or maybe it was she who grew smaller. Anyhow, it got longer and longer until one day there was more hair than girl. The compliments came in endless waves until one day someone realized that, somewhere along the way, the girl underneath had disappeared.
Laura Byrne is a public health student, certified yoga teacher, and peer educator. She’s passionate about making mental and physical health accessible and equitable for all, whether through campus initiatives or state policy. In her free time, she enjoys writing, reading, and long walks on the beach with her dog.
SUDHA BALAGOPAL: Because You Demanded An Inventory…
Ten frayed-collar tops, folded;
nine crumpled dress pants, stacked;
eight pairs of faded socks, balled;
seven sets of misshapen underwear, rolled;
six shabby pajamas, bundled;
five exhausted, knee-length dresses, crammed;
four dingy skirts, stuffed;
three ancient earrings, wrapped;
two wobbly suitcases shut, snapped;
one illusory love story, concluded;
zero regrets.
Sudha Balagopal’s recent fiction appears in Fictive Dream, Adroit Journal and Does It Have Pockets among other journals. She has had two novellas-in-flash published by Ad Hoc Fiction: Nose Ornaments and Things I Can’t Tell Amma. Her stories have been included in Best Microfiction and Best Small Fictions. She is Series Editor, Wigleaf Top 50.