January 2026

January 2026

Editorial

Editorial: The Best We Can Hope For

Growing up, I think what plagued my mind endlessly was regret—regret about things I’ve said or done, things I should have said or done or wish I had. It was an endless cycle of reliving things past, and potential futures let go, over and over and over again each night, until these very thoughts either [...]

Literary

What to buy your husband of thirty seven-years for his birthday

Buy him a shirt: pale, pressed crisp, avoid a relaxed fit, get him something plain and ordinary like his face, not paisley, never stripes, definitely not checked because I’m no cowboy, Annie, certainly no pastels, definitely no glitter or sequins or tufted collars or feathers or fancy buttons or neon, or one shaped more like [...]

Fantasy

Stairs for Mermaids

Content Warning The thing about big sisters is that we little sisters want to be them. We dress alike, we watch the same shows, we style our hair like them and try winged eyeliner before our time. Though we’re not chubby, we stop eating chips and ice cream because they are on a diet. They’re [...]

Horror

Death Is a Black Door in the Ghetto

Content Warning The letter wasn't the first thing my mother set on fire, but it was the first that burned a door inside me—a door I'd spend years trying to open again.Most nights it was just us: me, her, the TV. She'd hold my face too close, her breath sour-sweet with wine, and say, "I [...]

Literary

Swampland

Any town built on swampland is bound to sink.It will collapse into the layers of substrate and sediment from the pressures of time and space, and people stomping through their routines. Prefabricated houses, all askew, are weighed down with chipboard furniture assembled using finicky allen keys through blurry tears. You hope a new shelf might [...]

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