Genre: Fiction

The first time he saw her she was singing karaoke at a queer dive bar. It was 2011, the early Obama years, a time of Hope. On a small stage lit up by strands of pink and gold twinkling lights, …

This was the email from Frock Place that got her: “See You at Midnight, Clare.” This was the one that made her stop. Her own name in the subject line of an email sent to millions of people, and every …

Two Versions of the Sea

A

It’s such an easy thing, loving the sea. Even that word, loving, is inadequate.

When I first started swim class, the teacher told us: “This is only the beginning, kids. This is …

It was the beginning of fall, and the whole town was abuzz with talk of the baiga planned for Independence Day. The country was up to its ears in crisis, and new words like “inflation,” “hyperinflation,” and “liberalization” had made …

6.

Imagine an octagonal structure. Each of the eight sides, named alphabetically from A to H, is in fact a long building, filled with cells. The inside wall of each lettered side is open—sealed with iron bars but otherwise transparent …

Act I

You remember that episode of Good Times when the Evanses suspected their neighbor, Gertie, of eating dog food? They saw a bunch of cans in her trash and Gertie didn’t have a dog to speak of. Then, after …

To Héctor Tobar

We’re disconnected from nature. When you talk to old people from Mexico, they’ll tell you stories about how they hunted, about how they knew rain was coming. They would look at the color of the trees to …

He was born with the [light of god] in his eyes. Born in the caul blue until his first breath, but calm as the midwife had ever seen. They said a newborn’s eyes can’t focus, can’t parse the flood of …

1.

The one memory from my childhood that stands out, unimpaired, is a forewarning of what would later happen.

Our life was simple, ending where the village ended, framed by the woods, the road leading into town, and the orchards …