Tag Archives: freedom

EMILY HALL: Full Potential

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

I watched as Mom-Mom made her bed.

She raised the sheet corners like four strong sails. Plumped embroidered pillowcases until the roses bloomed. Leveled her handmade quilt with an engineer’s precision.

And I felt such sorrow for this woman, who’d always warned me that girls shouldn’t have too much ambition.

Emily Hall is a freelance writer whose prose appears, or is forthcoming in, places such as Passages North, Portland Review, Blood Orange Review, 100 Word Story and Cherry Tree. She has a PhD in contemporary Anglophone novels, is a prose reader for West Trade Review, and lives in NC with her husband.

RE FEINER: In the Eye of the Bog Witch

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Conventional beauty standards lurk over Marsha’s modeling career as her hairstylist hacks at her self-image. Her agent sneers at her tears, “Maybe you’re not cut out for this industry.” Cast aside, Marsha finds solace in the marshlands. She grows native plants and feeds wild songbirds. They can see she’s beautiful.

R.E. Feiner has been writing for over ten years with over five years as a Marketing Specialist. At the end of 2024, tech layoffs forced her to reevaluate her career. As such, she rediscovered her love for creative writing. You can find more of her work on Instagram, TikTok, and Lemon8 at @book_void.

ADELE GALLOGLY: Witnessing

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Of course we’re wondering about the dead bus stop crow. Raven? Grackle? A smash of black on cement, witch-guts gross. We see the suited man who’s been hounding us before school, his Jehovah pamphlets flapping: “WHERE are YOU going?”

We bend to the bird, searching for its ears. Whisper: go.

Adele Gallogly’s very short stories have been published in FlashFlood, Writers’ Hour, Six-Sentences, and Paragraph Planet. You can follow her on BlueSky.

SUSMITA RAMANI: In the Clearing Between Worlds

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

“Can I go somewhere with fairies?” I ask.

“Sorry,” the gnome says. “They don’t like your kind. The only alternate world available to you is a version of your own where no one invents the telephone, radio, movies, or computers.”

“What do they do?” I ask.

He laughs. “Everything else.”

Susmita Ramani is a writer and lawyer who has a novella coming out from Running Wild Press in 2026. She has two teenage daughters and performs improv with a group. She lives in Palo Alto, California.

KATIE HEMMERLIN: A Nickel For Your Thoughts

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

In a world where each word costs a penny to say, a nickel to write, conversations are short, speeches are quick, but our own thoughts remain long. They haven’t taxed our mind’s voice yet, but when they do, I’m sure they’ll finally succeed.

No more ideas. No originality. Mindless.

$2.50

Katie lives on a farm in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Lately, she and her husband have been trail running on forgotten roads and exploring the creative side of writing. In addition to 50-Word Stories, her microfiction was recently featured in Short Beasts Flash Fiction.

LF KHOURI: Inheritance

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , ,

My grandfather folded prayers into matchbooks. Lit cigarettes with them. Swore they tasted sweeter.

When he died, we found them tucked in jars: Surahs beside postage stamps, verses pressed into lottery tickets.

He left no will.
Only this:
“Keep burning what they want you to forget.”

L.F. Khouri is a writer who has studied in the U.S. and abroad. His work explores war, memory, and the inheritance of silence. His flash and short fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in literary journals such as SmokeLong Quarterly, miniMAG, and Literally Stories.

ANGELA CARLTON: The Girl by the Pond

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

The girl by the pond has secrets that she can’t bury underwater.

She walks the chain fence until she finds the grave with one rose planted firmly in the ground. She’d been held captive for years-years-years, years before the pregnancy, the afterthoughts of a baby who might set them free.

Angela Carlton’s fiction has been published in Every Writer, Everyday Fiction, Pedestal Magazine, 6S, 50 Word Stories, Spillwords Press, The Dribble Drabble Review and Friday Flash Fiction. In 2022, “A Jigsaw Life,” a collection of stories was released. In 2023, her story “Swallowed,” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. See more on Facebook.

JENNY MATTERN: Notre Dame

Artistic, Poetry, Submissions, , , , ,

in the middle ages
cathedrals soared
impossibly high
flying buttresses
allowing each
stained glass window
to arch
up and up
and up
inviting in
all the light

is it any wonder
then
that I
in my own middle age
throw open my arms
impossibly wide
inviting in
all the light

Jenny Mattern is a poet, a crafter of stories, and a cake-for-breakfast enthusiast who lives with her family in Montana. She is represented by Nicole Eisenbraun at Ginger Clark Literary Agency.

MICHELLE WILSON: Auto-Correct

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Every time I type my to-do list, auto-correct interrupts my train of thought.

I need to
…check the news.
…watch Netflix.
…buy something on Amazon.

Doubt descends. What do I really want? To put down my phone. I press ‘save’ and auto-correct says, Wait.

You forgot something.

Wait.

Stay here…

Michelle Wilson’s words have appeared in Bending Genres, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Rejection Letters, Potato Soup Journal’s Best of 2021 Anthology, Maudlin House, Litro Magazine, The Drabble, 50-Word Stories, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, among others. Her story ‘Fish Brain’ was nominated for Best of the Net 2022. She lives with her partner in Washington, DC. She can be found at michellekwilson.wordpress.com.

CHARLINDA BANKS: Spring ’89

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , ,

For hours from Missoula to Calgary, Jake didn’t drive straight. He zoomed past those empty cop cars that are meant to scare you into compliance. He liked that you couldn’t know they were empty until you passed them, but you could know you were a black boy, crying, laughing, speeding.

Charlinda Banks is an emerging writer currently living in Boston, MA. She mainly writes about family, gender, sensuality, and ghosts through poetry, fiction, and creative essays. When Charlinda isn’t writing she is working in the nonprofit arts, reading, or lighting a candle.