From the editor: That Voice, by Sheila Squillante
The last time I cried over a celebrity death was in 1990. I was dropped out of college and working in the most mediocre women’s clothing department at Macy’s.
A Hipster Devil Christmas, by Tara Campbell
Prompt, by Claire Lombardo: Write about an exquisitely eccentric holiday guest.
A Loudness of Screechers, by Rion Amilcar Scott
Prompt, by Tara Campbell: Banquet of beasts: beasts could be literal/figurative/whatever. And they could be on either side of the table: eating or being eaten. Or they could be underneath the table doing whatever it is beasts do best.
Conjoined, by Dana Diehl
Prompt, by Rion Amilcar Scott: Christmas/Kwanzaa/Hannukkah/Three King's Day after society has ended and civilization is struggling back to life.
A Very Mario Lopez Christmas, by Megan Giddings
Prompt, by Dana Diehl: Write a story with the plot (or could-be plot) of a made-for-TV ABC Family holiday special.
When You Were Here, by Claire Lombardo
Prompt, by Megan Giddings: A family wakes up on Christmas morning to find all their chosen holiday gifts are gone. They instead find unwrap weird objects (an old pipe, a sock with a weird stain, etc) and become very, very confused.
Overwinternight, by Helen McClory
Prompt, from Leah Umansky: Write in the second person. Include one or all of the following images: star, snowflake, owl, a famous tv character.
Shepherds, Why This Jubilee?, by Bryan Furuness
Prompt, by Helen McClory: Write about the most moving thing you have seen at festive time (can be totally fictional of course).
Submission Guidelines for Letters to Santa, by Tara Laskowski
Prompt, by Bryan Furuness: Submission guidelines for letters to Santa.
Elf NYC vs Elf MFA, by Danny Collier
Prompt, by Matt Perez: Write the two Pushcart poetry nominations from the Peg & Hammer, the number one literary magazine of Santa's (artsiest and perhaps most disgruntled) elves.
God Rest Ye, by Kevin Fanning
Prompt, from Danny Collier: If you're bitten or scratched by a celebrity, you become a celebrity. These are the plague days.
The Offer, by Caitlynn Martinez-McWhorter
I imagine my mother, at twenty five, a petite brunette with giant hazel eyes. I can picture her hanging upside down off the edge of her queen-sized bed, blood rushing to her head, the way she told me it did.
What Was Found, by Barbara Raimondo
The police divers brought up the ATV.
Later our father restored it to its original condition.
The divers kept finding Jack’s things under the water.
They brought up his smile with its oversized tooth.
Brothers, by Margaret DeAngelis
Gene could hear the phone ringing inside the trailer as he fumbled with the lock he kept meaning to fix. It was probably one of the stepmothers changing something. He wasn’t in the mood to talk to any of them. Let the machine take it.
Once, We Posed Our Barbie Dolls Like a Playboy Shoot, by Kate Litterer
We stole eggs from the refrigerator
instead of the chicken coop—maybe
we wanted to test if our parents will
notice. They don’t.
Bond, by Anna Meister
Like fireflies, our faces
glow from the TV light
that night in June. We shoot Jack
until the burn dies,
bottle left with nothing
to claim.
High Grass, by Carmelinda Blagg
I’m chasing after my older sister, Shelly – I’m the sheriff, she’s the gold thief – when all of a sudden she stops cold in her tracks and I can tell by the stiff, near vertical tilt of her body that something is wrong.
The Porn Library, by Caroline Picard
Ruba wandered into Michael’s bedroom. “I want to help,” she said, without knowing what her brothers had in mind.
They all three heard the baby cry from the kitchen down the hall.
“Ruba can be the librarian,” Fletcher said.