short stories

This story was featured by Mulberry Literary Journal in the Issue IV NOWISE. Established in 2020, Mulberry Literary is an online literary and art magazine dedicated to showcasing boundless creative work in its every form. 

This was how it started. First, she forgot to wash her hair. She reduced the ritual from once a week to once a month, then abandoned the task completely.

She piled her hair high on her head and focused her attention on knotting macramé. On Tuesdays she baked sourdough, using the scoring lame to slice artwork into the top of the dough so each loaf emerged from the oven looking like Jesus.

Read More »In Case of Emergency Take Selfie

This story was featured by Active Muse literary journal in the Winter (Shishir) 2021 collection. Each collection, issued seasonally, features poems and short stories by authors from around the world. 

I shot hoops at the YMCA most summer nights. Swiped my card at the snacks machine. I pretended not to notice that my hair was falling out by then—tight white chunks like lint from the dryer trap. I saw one real big piece float down the court and lost my shit, because parts of me shouldn’t be taken out with the trash despite what ‘Rico says. I wrapped my hair in a scarf, put on a cap and double checked my fingernails to make sure they were clean.

Read More »Q

Our mom had decided to teach us how to make homemade salsa. We said, OK. Our husbands didn’t think it was such a good idea.… Read More »Sister Salsa

At East 74th and 5th Avenue in Central Park, just north of the water conservatory and east of the boathouse, stands the Alice in Wonderland… Read More »Looking Glass

Gramma swore a lot, sometimes at me. She cooked a lot of German food, smelly things like bratwurst and wet cabbage soup dumplings that smelled… Read More »Miss you, Gramma

It didn’t have to happen. Not the recession. Not the decrepit senior citizen retirement center nor the 1970’s camper van. Not the bad jobs, broken… Read More »It Didn’t Have To Happen

She was a lanky woman who looked like an athlete and when she walked, especially fast, placed extra emphasis on the balls of her feet.

A family outcast since the day she was born, she moved through the world with a lofty air and a certain resignation—but things started to change right around the time she graduated from Cleveland State University with a degree in art history.

Read More »Julie

They pop their shirt collars high like it means something. In an end-of-world apocalypse scenario this is what they’ll be doing when they die. Or,… Read More »Jump Cut to Venice, CA

The parrots first arrived in August. The boyfriend says it was a sign. She says all they did was put seed outside — like they… Read More »Wild Parrots

I walked down Pickney St. with a bottle of Perrier in one hand and my cell phone in the other. I always find myself scrolling… Read More »From the Archives: Friendships