A Thornbush’s Embrace Missy Nieveen Phegley __________ I find much joy in riding bikes, and I frequently imagine my kids sharing my love of riding as we go on all kinds of cycling adventures. So, one day when my five-year-old asked to ride her bike, I stopped what I was…
Read MoreNo One Says the C-Word at the Comprehensive Cancer Center Mikki Aronoff __________ You haul your ass and your cancer over for your one o’clock—the cancer your newly uninvited passenger, all grunt and elbows jostling for space smack dab in the middle of you, this bully breed, unruly teen (mercy,…
Read MoreMidnight in the Valley of Spam Steve Almond __________ Dear Sir, my name is ________ ________. I am the Prince of a faraway land, though I live now in the kingdom of Disgrace. A Great Treasure has been taken from me. Stolen. Looted, sir. For this reason I now request…
Read MoreLetter from the Guest Editor Taryn White __________ Without particularly knowing why, texts like Alice in Wonderland, Frankenstein, and Ulysses have always brought a sort of comfort to me. During times when my own skin and bones hardly felt like home, I felt as though I had to become less…
Read MoreLetter from the Editor Vallie Lynn Watson __________ I have spent a lot of my life on the move. I was born in the Midwest, lived overseas in the Middle East until I was eight, then moved to the Deep Deep South, my family’s birth home, where I stayed put…
Read MoreAll Flash: Spice of Life ’24 Editor: Vallie Lynn Watson Managing Editor: Abbie Skinner Guest Editor: Aiman Tariq Assistant Editors: Karris Rae, Taryn White, Meilyn Woods Editorial Assistants: Mia Bonds, Alexandria Knight Digby Beaumont, Frida Kahlo, acrylic over ink Letter from the Editor by Vallie Lynn Watson Letter from the…
Read MoreLily: A Found Flash of All Thirteen Stories Mia Bonds and Alexandria Knight, Editorial Assistants __________ I’m interested in this place. It was staggering to witness. Branches bent like ostriches, afraid to look. Sometimes, slivers of light would invade, indicating the buildings were wooden slats. She’s wearing a black trench…
Read MoreLetter from the Guest Editor Aiman Tariq __________ Life as a woman is an intricate web of societal expectations. Hailing from Pakistan, a culture deeply rooted in patriarchy that further derives strength from culture and religion, I, instead of taking the usual route of lifelong subservience in the form of…
Read MoreLetter from the Editor Vallie Lynn Watson __________ Confession: I didn’t know what boudin was until about six months ago, when I learned that one of the perks of my wonderful new gig teaching in the MFA program at McNeese State University (Lake Charles, LA) was inheriting the relatively-new magazine…
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