Category Archives: Artistic

PEGGY ACOTT: Without a Trace

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, ,

There wasn’t a way to explain his disappearance.

No note, no just cause, no discarded hopes or dreams.

No signs of spacecraft.

“He said he was going to the store for cat food,” his wife said.

She would always wonder if it was a clue.

They didn’t have a cat.

Peggy Acott is a novelist and poet living and working in Portland, Oregon. Her fiction and non-fiction work have been published both online and in print. She was a semi-finalist in The Writer Magazine’s 2023 Flash Fiction contest, and two poems were included in the 2024 anthology When Flowers Sing, by A Thousand Flowers Books. See more at peggyacott.com

ANGELA CARLTON: Quiet Love

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

He loved her quietly, a faint whisper that stirred him in his sleep. Sometimes he’d bring Godiva to the breakroom. Her husband was allergic to chocolates so he watched her devour each piece. In dreams, he pulled a star from the sky so she could wear it on her finger.

Angela Carlton’s fiction has been published in Every Writer, Everyday Fiction, 6S, 50 Word Stories, Spillwords Press, The Dribble Drabble Review and Friday Flash Fiction. In 2018, her story “The Roommates,” was made into a short film. In 2023, her story “Swallowed,” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. See more at Angela Carlton Stories & Art | Facebook.

SEBASTIAN FUNARI: January 1st

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Today I became a father.

At the hospital, I spent hours sitting, not knowing where to put my hands. I observed my son sleeping. At the same time, the new year was beginning.

I believe life restarts like this: silence, with fatigue, fear, and desire to do well, today on.

Sebastian Funari is an Italian author who writes short stories for those with little time but who don’t want to stop reading. Simple texts, inspired by everyday life and personal experiences, strange or ordinary.

MARINDA KOTZE: Migratory Habits

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

A couple argues in the front row. I perch forward on my seat and fan myself with a leaflet foisted on me at the bus stop. The soft glow of an orange sunset flashes onto us in rhythmic intervals through the roadside trees. Overhead, a skein of geese glide home.

Marinda Kotze wrote this micro story on a long bus ride home.

YUVNA MUSUKU: The Photo

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

The photobooth strip clung to the wall.
We giggled as our sparkly dresses reflected in the camera.
The tape’s grip loosened.
We danced all night, dodging our dates’ glares.
You touched our matching bracelets: best friends forever.
It fell.
Yet, now, I sit alone.
at the
back      of your funeral.

Yuvna enjoys writing flash fiction and personal essays. She also enjoys reading, hiking, and trying out different cuisines.

JOHN SZAMOSI: BB

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , ,

I half-watch the game, NFL wildcard, mostly commercials. My brother texts: Michelob. Yesterday’s argument lingers.

He arrives with the beer. We sit. Memories. A family thinned to two.

Once hungry, never full.
Once poor, always poor.

Next day he texts me again: Molson, mañana. I agree.

Beer. Brother. Good enough.

John Szamosi is a wordsmith and peace activist. He’s been publishing short stories, satires and poems since his freshman year in college.

JENNY HART: When the Silence Came

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

The day Dad died, the world didn’t end—but the birds forgot how to sing. His empty chair echoed louder than thunder. I reached for his voice in dreams, only to wake with nothing but shadows. Grief isn’t loud. It’s the silence that follows love, and never quite leaves.

Jenny Hart wrote this story.

BOB THURBER: Dog Days

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

During the miserably hot sultry nights those of us renting rooms on the third-floor climbed through a window onto the porch roof. We set up lawn chairs, sipped beers and smoked cigarettes. We talked about things we’d lost, about breakups and custody battles, and we tried to catch our breath.

Bob Thurber is the author of six books. Regarded as a master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in Esquire and other magazines, been anthologized 60 times, received a long list of awards, and been utilized in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

SHERRI BALE: Overwhelmed

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, ,

Stop! I can’t take any more. Shut off the television. Turn off the radio. Cancel the newspapers. Delete the apps on your phone. Pull Alexa’s plug. Close the blinds; lock all the doors. Got to bed. Pull the covers over your head.

Set the alarm for three years from now.

Sherri Bale is a retired geneticist, part-time personal trainer, Jack Russell Terrier mom, and writer of fiction as short as 50 words and as long as 90,000. Whatever it takes to tell the story.

JUDITH DZIERBA: A 50-Word Resolution

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

If days in the previous year seem somber, maybe dismal, cut them up into interlocking parts and box them like a 365-piece puzzle. At start of the New Year, resolve to put them together, studying one bygone segment with each new day. You just might find delight in the details.

Judith wrote this. She resolves to smooth out the jagged parts of life’s puzzlements.