In "Rods and Koans", all matter becomes something that matters—the confluence exacting and broad. Irena Praitis’s "Rods and Koans" begins with the enigmatic inscription, “This is about saving the cat … or not.” Borrowing the... Read More

In Michelle Barker’s "The House of One Thousand Eyes", it’s 1983, and the German Democratic Republic is on lockdown. Orphaned when her parents died in a factory explosion, all seventeen-year-old Lena Altman has left are her aunt,... Read More

Natalie Sypolt’s "The Sound of Holding Your Breath" finds people on the cusp. Poised on the edge of change, these stories traffic in the ties of duty, trouble, and trauma embedded in the lives of various West Virginians and offer... Read More

In Calais, France, there is a horrifying encampment known as The Jungle that teems with people who’ve who fled wars and violence. Faced with overcrowding, police brutality, and political ennui, their dreams slowly fester. Residents... Read More

In Ruvanee Pietersz Vilhauer’s "The Water Diviner and Other Stories", Sri Lankans recognize and reckon with each other and their shared history at home and abroad, discovering what connects and divides them. Full of richly drawn... Read More

Moving from the recent past into the future, Sara Batkie’s short story collection "Better Times" traverses lives that are subtly or drastically twisted away from what is familiar. Mystery and surrealism underlie the mundane, their... Read More

In Mary Watson’s "The Wren Hunt", druids are still in the world, but they’re hanging on by a thread. Once a powerful group, their unity is long gone, victim to internecine factions that have divided their three branches into... Read More

Lars Petter Sveen’s "Children of God", translated by Guy Puzey, collects stories featuring the New Testament’s marginal people. On the edge of the Roman empire, a place where everything is “so mixed up, so confusing … that it... Read More