fiction
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Spring 25 Visiting Writers Series
Mark your calendars for some readings in our Visiting Writers Series! We have a robust schedule of visiting writers this semester and will be updating this post! Join us for our first reading in our spring Visiting Writers Series! Professor Xochiquetzal Candelaria will host poet Joseph Lease for an online reading! Wednesday, March 5, 2025,…
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Where did Kelly wake up and why is there a cat named “Moocher”? Come find out by reading “The Oul Dear” by Wess Phillipson in Forum’s Fall 2020 Fiction!
Kelly blinked her eyes awake, but saw no difference in her vision. The room was absent of light, but she could tell this wasn’t her bed. Being a blackout drunk, she had become accustomed to waking up in strange places; but when she felt the flannel bedding, that’s when she knew she’d hit bottom. Kelly…
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Honey Chicken Sandwiches
Honey chicken sandwiches and ramen make me think of you. Instant ramen, the ones you told me about as we were in a convenience store, that when you were younger you would get in cups and is usually a dollar but at the Indian market on the corner it’s $1.50, as you hand over crumbled…
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Sunday Sunday Sunday
Dad is too drunk to drive, so I take his keys and lay him into the back seat with a plastic water bottle. The sun’s beating down on the Sonoma hills and the roar of hot rods exploding down the track is loud. We will have to find out who won from the Sonoma Raceway…
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Another Eye
The cold overhead lights flickered as if to mock the situation’s ambiguity. Even if it hadn’t gone awry, the procedure was unprecedented, and its outcome could not be predicted with certainty even by the most adept surgeons. For that matter, as it ultimately proved, the outcome would remain unexplainable—or perhaps simply unexplained—by anyone. At least…
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A Wicked on Rickety Road
Rickety Road, Lost County, Dakota Territory, 1888 There was a Gunslinger walking down Rickety Road. His limp swaying arms and unsteady gait gave him the appearance of a drunkard, although he did not stumble. Every now and then his pale, thin fingers twitched toward the scratched and grimy black revolvers at his sides, ready to…
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Skeletor
Skeletor had long wanted a body: to cover him, shield him, make him whole. He was only a skeleton. He was jealous of the other skeletons who had bodies. Sometimes, he would put clothes on and stuff them with pillows or crumpled up newspaper and stare in the mirror. He always put an extra pillow…
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Simplify
Circa 1956. Sometime in the predawn hours of the Cultural Revolution[1]. A black, red-flagged limo pulls up in front of the Chairman’s dacha in idyllic West Lake. A weary looking Minister of Culture, Hung, steps out of the car, and is ushered inside by the guards. He hands off his gloves and coat to the staff…
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Excerpt from The Storytaker
Scratch, scratch, scratch. Click, tap, tap, click. Pencils on paper. Fingers tapped table-tops with no particular rhythm. The days were too short and too valuable to make music while deep in thought. People scrunched up their faces, which were red and frustrated. Tongues bled under the pressure of teeth. No one spoke, no one looked…
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50 Love Letters
Cast of Characters JANA An older professional woman SISSY A young woman, probably a college student SAM A hippie looking young man MADDY A middle-aged woman Setting: The N Judah Muni train in San Francisco. Time: Present At Rise: JANA has been sitting on the train for a while holding a shoebox tied with a…
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