The sea off Dapit-Hapon holds untold magic. That much I’ve always known. When I was small enough to fit in the crook between her lap and her belly, Mama would tell me of the enchanted waters and the secrets they hold, her golden shell necklace warm against my cheek as she spoke of the sirena […]
The string pulled taut at three AM. Bobby was facing the other way, the sleeping bag corkscrewed down to his feet. Joel lay very still, watching his brother’s shoulders rise and fall, looking at the soft fuzz on the edge of Bobby’s ear illuminated in the light from the fish tank. Then he gently traced […]
Ava stands on top of the monkey bars in a way that doesn’t look possible. Or at least it shouldn’t. Look possible, I mean. Maybe possible isn’t the right word, but either way it doesn’t seem advisable, the way she has her feet planted on the green handholds like it’s no different than the sidewalk. […]
Chapter One There’s this video of Maria João Pires online that I’ve watched a thousand times. It’s 1999 and she’s in Amsterdam, set to perform the piano solo in Mozart’s D minor concerto with Riccardo Chailly conducting. The first few syncopated notes sound from the violins and violas, and as the cellos and basses enter, […]
Second Place Winner of Voyage’s Lucky No. 7 Challenge Gold and sequined, it shone on the rack like a sunrise, bursting like the dawn over a field of muted flannels. It was armor, but nothing like a suit. It was flowing, fluid—a soft shape with hard edges. It signaled protection to the wearer and warning […]
Ella, in the dim, flickering light of the janitor’s closet, could see that the berries had regrown their teeth. Not whole sets—at least, not yet. Cranking the dial on her newly stolen microscope, she leaned over Sebastian, who was prepping a fresh pot of jam on the floor, and she zoomed in on the fruit: […]
“Zachary Kahn-Molina, do you have siblings?” Mr. Rattrazino paused, stub of yellow chalk cinched between his second and third fingers like the suave, self-destructive, chain-smoking lead of a 1930s movie. Rattrazino—mostly, we called him “Mr. R,” though a few smart-asses (usually after they’d bombed a test) muttered “Mr. Rat” behind his back—was old-school that way. […]
Third Place Winner of Voyage’s Love & War Contest judged by NYT Bestselling Author Ayana Gray Chapter One Three nails stuck out of the ground an inch from Lane’s left big toe. Their heads were a quarter inch wide, and they stood a half inch from the surface of the soil. They almost looked like […]
Second Place Winner of Voyage’s Love & War Contest judged by NYT Bestselling Author Ayana Gray . Chapter One Present day “If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem […]
First Place Winner of Voyage’s Love & War Contest judged by NYT Bestselling Author Ayana Gray . Chapter One Clio twisted the tuning key and plucked the shortest string again, bending close to her harp to hear it over the patricians’ murmurs. Too much—the note had gone sharp. She inched the key back with twitches […]
Content warning: Themes of death .Your dad woke from a ten-day coma. He was forty-seven and living in the in-between measurements of time. You were fourteen. He shared a room with four men at a nursing home that specialized in neuro diseases like Parkinson’s and MS. He had the latter. During the coma, the nursing […]
Content warning: Physical and verbal abuse of a teenager . Thursday Night or Friday Morning The night air hit me like a slap. I kept my hands in my coat pockets and ducked my chin to my chest. After crossing the grocery store parking lot, I headed up the main street, past the classy little […]