Together, We Can Save a Life, Christopher Lettera
“Two months ago we were driving out of Liberty Plaza, a rotten gathering of crumbling stores spread across an empty, weed-ridden lot. We came upon a corner, a little enclave where a dozen or so tiny shops might have thrived before everything shut down. In this space: a headless Cabbage Patch doll, an overturned shopping buggy, a plastic bag floating mid-air against moon-glow, graffiti (‘Satan knows’). ‘I’m telling you,’ Rob says, ‘Something bad was back there.'”

Monsters: A Series of Non-Chronological Vignettes, Ryan Werner
“In the amusing way in which people set up their own personal barriers when defining right and wrong, she won’t allow me to bring her to orgasm.”

Of Lullabies and Lightning Storms, Dana Chamblee Carpenter
“Sybil just kicked her feet against the plastic that pressed against the walls of her bedroom. She lived in a bubble inflated by the air they forced in; her world swelled and dipped like a jellyfish played upon by the water.”

Elephantine, Randall Martoccia
“Truly, no geologic formation was ever more penis-like than the Chimney. In the shadow of this protruding slab, the husband and wife sat at a table on the deck of Kritter’s Restaurant and Gifts. They swatted mosquitoes and drank their iced teas.”

Good for the Gander, K. Marvin Bruce
“Poe had his raven. Coleridge had his albatross. I’ve got a fucking goose.”

Cover art: My Headphones, Dasha Shleyeva