FEATURED FICTION

By Jayce Bayani [First place] -- My mother has only hit me three times in my life. Me, her only daughter. The first time was when I was 12. I exposed her boyfriend at the time for what he really was: a snake. A vile, good-for-nothing bastard. A shitstain unworthy of the ink I write this on. Back in those days, Nightswood was the biggest town in Paulson County, West Virginia. It was a sleepy town with a decent main street. Old folks would make it their mission to play bingo

By MG Allan [Second place] -- Jasper found the manuscript on a flash drive that had been shoved in the back of a drawer in Morty’s desk. This was almost six months after Morty’s heart attack. It took Jasper that long to feel emotionally stable enough to really go through Morty’s things. Jasper had left his late husband’s office like a shrine, gathering dust to weight down all the memories. He could barely walk into the room without breaking into sobs. More than any other

By Matthew Wherttam [Third place] -- This year, I should see the Southern Stars. I would have to travel below the equator to do that, but wouldn't it be worth the trip? The light from those stars has taken hundreds, thousands, and, in some cases, millions and billions of years to reach us, and those stars have been moving to other places all those years. Some of them have even blown themselves to bits in gigantic bursts that will also take many years to get to Earth. So don