My dad uttered the term “dignity” for the first time when I was sixteen. Its connotations and contradictions were boundless. Dignity was an inherent possession of all beings. Dignity was a state of mind. But dignity was dependent on action. Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction The Hollows of Maine Dignity made … Read more
The stranger curled up in her bed was particularly out of place. He was a spaceman, completely in uniform. His white thermal suit was covered in patches of dirt. The dark visor didn’t allow the slightest glimpse of the spaceman’s face. There were all sorts of buttons and straps along the suit, and it looked … Read more
The AI worked quickly. The edges of her body blurred and shifted, then reappeared. She was still slouched, still crumpled, but now it was on a beach at sunset. Her hair rippled faintly in a breeze she couldn’t feel, and the sunlight fell across her skin, soft and golden, catching strands of hair like it … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry After Anguish Barn stalls gape empty, draped with cobwebs. The time for burrowing soft and deep, quilt to chin, under scraps patched to pattern: cathedral window’s twelve-fold squares. In early dark and deepening chill, trees blacken against the gray, a western tint of light remaining. Here it’s … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry America’s Modern Korean Bride Gait is a tell-tale of origin, so to blend in with Manhattan scrapes: walkstraight like Ma’s back-brace, translate pastrami energy into hare-velocity, clutch Chloé ’s straps straight likeVanderbilt’s railroads over dear Hudson – so maybe you’ll earn a fortunetoo. You’ve always babbled of … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry End of the line I’m not allowed to write about Disconnection’Cos I’m all grown up now and my life is of my own making.At my age I should have it all figured out.But this is not what I thought life would feel like. I’m not there yet … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry Translations The English language is a complicated thing. Especially when his love language is action: he pumps air in the tires of my Prius; he recalls car keys I left by the bathtub so I can exit our front door on time. What I want is words … Read more
He was right about Oliver. He was starting to settle, and his cries were infrequent now. I stepped forward cautiously on my tiger path. “What’s your name? Where did you come from?” “Ahh so sorry, I almost forgot my introduction. This may help.” He pointed to a silver name plate on his chest labeled with … Read more
Yes, maybe relationships are not, after all, just consolations for those who can’t have greatness. Maybe she isn’t asexual. What, if not love, is this hot prickling that begins, as she imagines Dheer’s reply, just where her breastbone ends? Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction Odd Couples: Mr. Polyamorous and Dr. Asexual … Read more
Albert was no ordinary squirrel; he was more like a surrogate child to me, a hairy one who didn’t require a college fund. I had found him at a particularly dark time, right after my first miscarriage and long before the twins came along, at the foot of a giant sequoia. A tiny, shivering ball … Read more