Gen had fourteen freckles on her nose. Nora knew this because she counted them. In fact, Nora could’ve charted a map from Gen’s hairline to her neck and identified the exact location of every landmark on the way. She knew the crooked angles of Gen’s nose, the exact curve of her lips, and the shape […]
“#83: Kimberly Frank Is a Skank” by Sharon Inkpen is the winner of the Through the Looking Glass Challenge hosted by Voyage YA by Uncharted. Page 1 It’s 1989. You are thirteen-year-old Colleen Paxton. Puberty is hell. High school is hell. Your life is hell. The lunch bell just rang. You’re supposed to be in […]
“Tears Like Summer Rain” by Rose Rasor is the first place winner of the Young Adults Write YA Contest hosted by Voyage YA by Uncharted and guest judged by Theodora Goss. XXX “Tears Like Summer Rain” by Rose Rasor is a beautiful story—thematically, stylistically, and in terms of its structure. It reminds me of a […]
“All Mad Here” by Emi Davis is the second place winner of the Young Adults Write YA Contest hosted by Voyage YA by Uncharted and guest judged by Theodora Goss. XXX It’s very difficult to write a story that grows out of and incorporates another story—that is, to write intertextually. But Emi Davis, the author […]
“The Bird Bag” by Karen Elizabeth is the third place winner of the Young Adults Write YA Contest hosted by Voyage YA by Uncharted and guest judged by Theodora Goss. XXX “The Bird Bag” is a wildly ambitious story in which Karen Elizabeth creates an entire fantastical world, with its customs and beliefs. We are […]
Content warning: graphic dissection Jerry and I run into the bicycle shed, frogs palpitating in our palms. The kettle fizzes, quicksands, groans on our makeshift stove. For too long this place has squirmed with screwdrivers and old toasters! Every shed would be ecstatic to be the site of an earthquaking discovery. “Gloves on, Wyatt,” yells […]
After a greasy lunch at a diner on the side of the highway, I opened my coin purse and started laying the coins out on the table, trying to remember their shapes and denominations. Twenty-five, fifty, that small one is a ten so that’s sixty… sixty-five… I pushed the coins around, arranging them in a […]
The heat was brutal in the weeks before Ari was captured. Parched Goondiwindi soil baked in forty-degree days and denuded trees stood cemented in place by air that refused to move. Nothing moved in that heat. Nothing but the Southerners hitting a rare breach in the wall—they darted through the streets like wild rabbits, their […]
Mama tells me that growing up, all she wanted was a wraparound porch. Says while those other girls were dreaming of diamond rings and cashmere, she just wanted her wraparound, a way to entertain friends after Sunday services while enjoying all of God’s glory. “No one should be buying diamonds anyway,” I tell her. “There’s […]
Dandelion root. Pulled up from the tired grass. Shake the dirt loose. Rinse in the creek. Chew. Bitter. So bitter. I wonder why I did it… maybe I thought it would taste like the rest of the plant. Like the milky, squeaky stalks that taste like spring green. Like the silky, fluttery heads that peel […]
A Soul of the Earth story Stiletto Sally’s nails scrape the screen of her tablet as she flicks through my medical file. “Yesterday’s results are in. All your bodily functions are in order. And your intelligence test scores were satisfactory. We’ll allow you into the next phase.” She tucks the tablet between her pointy elbow […]
Don’t date a fungus, my sister had tried to warn me. Too eager, too needy, too much of a chance it would smother my body in smelly gray peach fuzz, stealing all the love I was desperate to give it. All true, in the end. On my right foot, at least. My pinky-toe dewy and […]