Edith Wharton called the short story “a shaft driven straight into the heart of human experience,” and though there are many other ways to define the genre, I rather like Wharton’s version.
Good short stories, in my opinion, do possess that piercing quality. They are like lamps that shine through the murk of life and allow us to see something important and true. And they bore into us, the readers, as well, leaving us awakened, startled, changed. I love short stories, and frequently, with varying degrees of success, I try to write them. Several of my short pieces have found homes in print journals, like The Florida Review, Quarter After Eight, Soundings Review, Passages North, Lascaux Review, Fourteen Hills, and Emerson Review. But others have been published in online magazines. I’ve shared links to some of those publications below.
Young Adult Short Stories and Flashes…
“A Future” in Bodega
“The Pond” in Fiction Southeast
“The Gray Place in Morton” in Litro
“Safety Measures” in YARN
“Secrets from the Underworld” in Lunch Ticket
“Theory in Cool Grass” in Origins Journal
“Measurements” in Foliate Oak Literary Magazine
“The Charred Companion” in Lunch Ticket
“Career Day” in 100 Word Story
“The Snow Globe” in The Passed Note
“Birth Order Rites” in Crack the Spine
“Gravity” in decomP
“Elephants” in Nat. Brut
“Taking Care” in Portland Review
Flashes with a Dark Fairytale Sensibility…
“The Flammable Fabric of a Flash” in New Flash Fiction Review
“The Vagaries of Her Plot” in Janus Literary
“Red” in Matchbook
“Five Minutes Past Noon” in New South
“The Caller’s Protean Enchantment” in Elsewhere Lit
“Made Useful” and “Forest Management” in the Atticus Review
“Prayers Saved in Miniature by the Master of Claude de France” in Corium Magazine
Works for Older Readers…
“Sauce” in Frigg
“Mermaid” in Frigg
“Late Night Classic” in Frigg
“Puppy Rescued by Western New York Family Actually Full-Grown Woman” in The Forge
“Three Funerals” in The Bureau Dispatch
“Exercised Loss” in Cease, Cows
“Passion” in X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine
“Borderlands” in Spry Literary Journal
“Maggie June” in Ghost Parachute
“The Brick Place” in Trampset
“Dragon” in Gone Lawn
“Four Women Named Hope” in Gone Lawn
“On the Day Meryl Stopped Being Pregnant” in Fractured Lit
“Super-Absorbent Stella” in Monkeybicycle
“Sam Tree” in Wigleaf
“Shay’s Lot” in Bending Genres
“Replaced” in Akashic Books
“Hamlet Who?” in Porcupine Literary
“Buttoned” in Ruminate Magazine
“Brass” in Cheap Pop
“The Saturday Clinic” in JMWW
“About This Woman, Lena” in Gravel Literary Magazine
“A Pantry Moment” in Gravel Literary Magazine
“Unveiling” in Anomaly Literary Journal
“Happens All the Time” in Every Day Fiction
“Winter Over” in Cheat River Review
“The False that Feels Real” and “For Every Pain, Consolation” in The Baltimore Review
“Littler, Younger” in Pithead Chapel
“Severed” in Duende
“Love Story” in Literary Orphans
“The Postscript” in Akashic Books
“The Shortest Distance Between Two Places” in Bookends Review
“Trappings” in The Quotable
“New Crucible” in Toasted Cheese
“Posted” in Juked
“Fathomed, with Singular Fidelity” in Matchbook
“Impossible Prudence” in Monkeybicycle
“Practical Solution” in Oblong
“Emergencies, in the Event of” in Cleaver
