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16 Siroccos
Mary Lawrence Ware, 10th Grade, New YorkThird Place — My mother says menopause is full of pain. Hot flashes, anger, despair, insomnia, a surge of untamable emotions...
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The Question of Where We Begin
Kyle MinorWe begin with the trouble, but where does the trouble begin? My uncle takes a pistol and blows his brains out.Now we may proceed to the aftermath
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On "My Aeschylus” by Jim Shepard
Josh WeilThe best short stories are simultaneously the least understandable and most fully felt. They hits us with undeniable force, a concrete impact...
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Joyride
David AbramsZeildorf had been on guard duty since 2 p.m. and he’d been paired with Suarez. That was the first bad thing. Suarez was known for his weak bladder—compared...
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A Certainty
Rumaan AlamWhen you get old, your skin goes soft. Like the pages of a library book, my grandmother’s hands, papery and cool. She’d take my hand in hers...
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Amulets: A Slideshow
Roberta AllenEyes closed, Tara squeezed the amulet so tightly in her hand that she shrank the island of Taniqua, her home, to the size of a studio apartment in Manhattan
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Power Ballads
Will BoastIt’s worse than dating, I told Kate. Every band you join, every job you take, it’s always the same: That first awkward jam, feeling each other...
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Hexagon
Blake ButlerConeWhite cone descended in sound blisterThere were the people having skin removed: to make the hood over our last eveningCone, White cone...
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The End of My Life in New York
Peter CameronHe doesn’t look at me, but furrows his brow and stares intently at the splayed pages, as if reading is very hard work. After enjoying this charade...
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Monkey Brains
Elysha ChangLook, this is how a heart works. The right atrium receives blood from the legs and arms and pours it into the right ventricle