Podcasts

Fiction

Using It and Losing It

Pratt walked the distance to work, stopped in at his accustomed cigar store to buy cigarettes, and rode the elevator upstairs to his office; in short, his standard routine, without deviation—yet it didn’t feel right.

In Sep. 2011 (Issue 54)

Fiction

Lessons from a Clockwork Queen

by Megan Arkenberg

She pulled back the sheets and found the little hole in the queen’s throat where the winding key fit like a kiss, and she turned and turned the key until her shoulders ached and she couldn’t turn it anymore.

In Sep. 2011 (Issue 54)

Fiction

Crossroads

by Laura Anne Gilman

John came to the crossroads at just shy of noon, where a man dressed all in black stared up at another man hanging from a gallows-tree. No, not hanging; he was being hung.

In Aug. 2011 (Issue 53)

Fiction

The World Is Cruel, My Daughter

by Cory Skerry

One day it was, “Why haven’t you any hair, Mother?” She stroked her own golden locks, which now swept her ankles, as she waited for an answer.

In Aug. 2011 (Issue 53)

Fiction

The Wolves of Brooklyn

by Catherynne M. Valente

It was snowing when the wolves first came, loping down Flatbush Ave., lithe and fast, panting clouds, their paws landing with a soft, heavy sound like bombs falling somewhere far away.

In July 2011 (Issue 52)

Fiction

The Machine

by M. Rickert

Graveyards creak with too many bones, and the weight of headstones, and when the wind blows the air is dusty with the dead. Ah life, its hoary inevitability. What’s the point?

In July 2011 (Issue 52)

Fiction

You Have Been Turned into a Zombie by a Friend

by Jeremiah Tolbert

You know all about bending and breaking their terms of service; it would take some serious hacking, magical or mundane, to pull this off. But you suspect magic.

In June 2011 (Issue 51)

Fiction

The Immortality Game

by Cat Rambo

Decades later the music was what really tipped Glen off. He heard a song on the radio, a brand new release, and remembered the day he’d first heard it, twenty years earlier.

In June 2011 (Issue 51)

Fiction

The Devil in Gaylord’s Creek

by Sarah Monette

I got my sword out of the trunk. Its name was Stella Mortua. John Ray hadn’t had a clue, but Francis told me what it meant: The Dead Star.

In May 2011 (Issue 50)

Fiction

Creation

by Jeffrey Ford

I learned about creation from Mrs. Grimm, in the basement of her house down the street from ours. The room was dimly lit by a stained-glass lamp positioned above the pool table. There was also a bar in the corner.

In May 2011 (Issue 50)