The following film contains upsetting content, including: drug use, smoking, foul and problematic language, sex, violence, suicide, abuse of minors, depictions of depression and psychosis, monsters in positions of power, and dead pets. This is the only film you will be allowed to see. You are the protagonist. Press play.
Tim Boiteau is a Writers of the Future winner and author of The Nilwere. He lives in Michigan.
When we were kids—
Don’t judge—
We went to the woods at night.
Hunting.
For chandeliers.
Burning bright beyond the shadows.
We would level your .22.
Easy.
Big dumb prey not going anywhere.
I mentioned we were kids?
So don’t judge.
Wouldn’t have guessed someone might come pull the blinds.
Tim Boiteau lives in Michigan. His short stories have won a Writers of the Future award and Story of the Year at 50WS. His novels include Iltday and The Nilwere. His slasher The Neighborhood Game is coming this winter.
He adored phones so much, he wished he could become one. Wanted a squircle-shaped body; gleaming, touch-sensitive skin. Wanted to be able to update and slip into pockets, to be held and gazed upon for endless hours every day. Maybe if he broke his mother’s, he could take its place.
Tim Boiteau is an award-winning writer living in Michigan with his family. He is the author of three novels, most recently The Nilwere (Grendel Press, 2024). See more at timboiteau.wordpress.com
“Looks like an alien,” my son said of the horseshoe-crab shell: translucent, fragile, dwarfed by his palm.
“You’re not wrong. They evolved in a world different from ours.”
“Shouldn’t we clean it up?” he wondered of the carapace-littered beach.
“Let the waves take care of everything. How about ice cream?”
Tim Boiteau is a Writers of the Future winner and Editor at Every Day fiction. He is the author of the novel The Nilwere (Grendel Press, 2024).
At breakfast I am waiting for you to speak, but your nose is in your phone. At lunch you’re in a meeting in your office while I eat a chicken-salad sandwich at the kitchen island. At dinner you flick on the television and fail to hear me say, “I’m leaving.”
Tim Boiteau is a Writers of the Future winner and author of The Nilwere (Grendel Press, 2024).
He stayed, despite constant fighting—there was the baby to consider. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling he’d have been happier had he left.
He left, baby or no—ragged from constant fighting. Still, miles down the road he couldn’t shake the feeling he’d have been happier had he stayed.
Tim Boiteau is a Writers of the Future winner and Editor at Every Day fiction. He is the author of the novel The Nilwere (Grendel Press, 2024).
Below the pond’s scummy surface, hairy milfoil swayed to the rhythm of unheard music.
I turned to the woman beside me, the wind sweeping her sun-lambent hair across her face.
How would she look down below?
Squeezing her hand, I felt a swell of gratitude that I’d probably never know.
Tim Boiteau is a Writers of the Future winner and author of The Nilwere (Grendel Press, 2024).
We surveyed our house’s carbonized skeleton.
“Remember our wedding night?” Marla said. “Dancing in the living room.”
“Right here.” I pointed to a depression in the charred floor.
“The beginning of our new life,” Marla said.
I wiped her eyes and held her, then whispered, “Can I have this dance?”
Tim Boiteau is a Writers of the Future winner and author of The Nilwere (Grendel Press). See more at timboiteau.wordpress.com.
In the beginning he had ideals, a reason for delivering impassioned speeches before crowds, but all the handshaking and adulation and weather buffed him down to a surface smooth as a one-way mirror: on one side you see yourself in him; on another you only see your enemy, the other.
Tim Boiteau is an award-winning writer living in Michigan with his family. He is the author of three novels, most recently The Nilwere (Grendel Press, 2024). See more at timboiteau.wordpress.com
Revenants streamed out of the TV.
Tom attempted to vault over the couch, but they fell upon him, tearing him to shreds.
As putrefying hands reached for her, Kelly stumbled over the coffee table, accidentally stepping on the remote.
The horde flickered into sitcom characters.
Everyone started laughing.
Except Tom.
Tim Boiteau is a Writers of the Future winner and Editor at Every Day Fiction. His third novel, The Nilwere, is slated to be published by Grendel Press in 2024-25. See more at timboiteau.wordpress.com.