COLIN RUFFELL: Waiting for Spring

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

He hung on all through the summer, autumn and winter. Getting thinner and weaker as the days passed.

Then on the first day of March, the first daffodils appeared and some fragrant purple lilacs.

But he’d gone already. If only it hadn’t been a leap year, he’d have made it.

It was a dark and stormy night many years ago in the city of London when Colin set off on his bicycle to ride around the world. He only made it as far as Hong Kong where he found work as a copywriter and is still planning his ride home.

SAROJ JUMAR SENAPATI: Lantern Memory

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Lost in the forest, she found lanterns glowing with her past. One showed her father’s smile, another a friendship she abandoned. None offered directions, only choices. She walked forward without certainty, realizing maps confine. The lanterns faded, but their light remained, guiding her toward freedom in the unknown.

Saroj Kumar Senapati is a retired government officer and independent writer based in Bengaluru, India.

MEG POKRASS: Fishes I Have Known

Artistic, Odd, Submissions, , ,

Bob’s heart was a fishbowl with castles inside it, his dreams of fame popping at the surface like air bubbles. When the man came to his door with a gun, asking for the money he owed, Bob squirted salt water into the air, the splash making ripples on our wallpaper.

Meg Pokrass lives in the Scottish Highlands. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals including New England Review, Electric Literature and Five Points. She’s the founding editor of Best Microfiction.

ANGELA CARLTON: The Man at the Library

Artistic, Submissions, ,

The man at the library blows bubbles from a wand; children can chase it in the sunlight. The man at the library sits, daily, with one overstuffed bag. The man at the library is the glorious statue in the wind, who has no home.

Sometimes he’ll sing, welcoming others in.

Angela Carlton’s fiction has been published in Every Writer, Everyday Fiction, 6S, 50 Word Stories, Spillwords Press, and Paragraph Planet. 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 on Facebook.

STORY OF THE MONTH: July 2026

News

The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.

The finalists for July were:

The Faerie Feast by Ellen Taylor
Forwarding Address by Paul D’Arcy
Mother’s Intuition by Bob Thurber
To Teach Unlearning by Maria Cargille
Lawn Ornament by Bethany Bruno

The winner of the July 2026 Story of the Month is…

Lawn Ornament

VISHI RIN: The Rule-Followers

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

Do not leave the inn after midnight.

I hammer the signboard to the gate.

Monster outside! I scrawl beneath it before returning to the inn’s hallway, pressing my ear to each door, listening for the breathing of those who heeded the warning.

I always did have an appetite for rule-followers.

Vishi Rin is a Literature and Creative Writing student from India. Between balancing the possibilities of an academic and a writing career, she finds herself drawn to just about everything artistic—songwriting, crocheting, painting, cooking, and even a little sorcery. She can be found at Vishi Rin.

LINDA KOHLER: Disappearing Act

Artistic, Odd, Submissions, , ,

Like any self-respecting anomaly, the alleyway frequently strays—and reappears elsewhere in the city. It sparks its usual shady goings-on, then shimmies again. But since materialising off Sun Boulevard, its flaky lamp’s been shining strongly. Cobbles mended. Graffiti scrubbed. When the alleyway tries to evanesce, it wobbles… then trumpets daffodils.

Linda Kohler is a South Australian writer of poetry and brief prose. Her work has recently appeared in The Marrow, The Ekphrastic Review and Meniscus. She can usually be found near water.

AMANDA LE ROUGETEL: The Kitchen Window

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

In the BeforeTimes, it was our access point to light and air. At night, its screen would be alive with bugs and moths and buzzing. But in these AridTimes, the screen is history — the buzzing, the bugs, the moths are absent, silent. Only the humans remain. Evolution got it wrong.

Amanda Le Rougetel lives on the Canadian prairie in a small house with ceiling fans, the windows open to whatever breeze can be caught because the bugs are almost entirely absent this summer.

JAYE KASEY: A Tutu, a Trilby, and the Truth

Adventure, Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

My junior ballet teacher told me she was a secretary for a spy.

I spent countless family dinners imagining her adventures. She’d chaîné down halls lined with gadgetry and tuck her feet into fifth position beneath an imposing mahogany desk.

This last year, she filed my taxes. I didn’t ask.

Jaye Kasey is a script and copywriter who loves daydreaming about the improbable and transcribing all of her most hilarious conversations into her notes app.