Listening for Life, part two of two, by Matthew Pitt

Matthew Pitt was the the 2009 Literary Awards Program Grand Prize-winner, selected by judge Pagan Kennedy. This is the second half of Chapter Three from his winning entry, Listening for Life. Catch the first part right here. ——— Cut to: Training by...

Listening for Life, part one of two, by Matthew Pitt

Matthew Pitt is the the 2009 Literary Awards Program Grand Prize-winner, selected by judge Pagan Kennedy. We’ll be excerpting Chapter Three from his winning entry, Listening for Life. Chapter 3—Late Summer, 2001—Carlos Note the texture of the thorns. That’s a...

The Three Fishermen by Tom Sheehan

There were three of them. There were four of us, and April lay on the campsite and on the river, a mixture of dawn at a damp extreme and the sun in the leaves at cajole. This was Deer Lodge on the Pine River in Ossipee, New Hampshire. The lodge was naught but a...

The Kingdom by Paul Luikart

You and Mark, your little boy from your first marriage, stand together on the bank of the Arkansas. You let your boots squish into the dark sand and you hope that Mark feels the sand squish beneath his boots. You hope that he experiences it like you did at his...

Brave Captain Harvey, Conclusion by Ryan Sparks

“Now. I’m stark naked, holed up in a cramped room with two dead whores, my radio is shot to shit, and I’m blue-balled all to hell. Twelve shots in the clip. I’m estimating there’s at least seven of ‘em outside, and they ain’t all going down with one bullet. My options...

Brave Captain Harvey, Part One by Ryan Sparks

“I knew things were bad when the second whore shook, seized up, then slid sideways off of me like a concussed jockey falling out of the saddle. Shot right through the breast. I’d thought the other one just fell or something, you know? She was dicking around with the...