Anosh Irani

‘He was at home in the water, and it was from here that he would find ways to live, reasons to live.’

Rachel Hewitt

‘Before motherhood, I had not thought much about sympathy.’

Dominique Fortier

‘For years, you have been passing through my life; like a comet, disappearing as quickly as you come.’ Translated by Rhonda Mullins.

Louis Hamelin

It took five hours to reach the club.

A.M. Homes

‘Even for those of us who feel we have integrated our history, there can be fragments, like shrapnel, that push to the surface without warning.’

Issue 139

Garth Risk Hallberg

‘All life is suffering. At the zendo where Jolie went Thursdays after sixth period, not much in the way of portable wisdom got dispensed, but this was, near as she could tell, the through line.’

Tracy Fells

‘Sophia no longer worries about how life smells, if she breathes in too deeply all she tastes is ash.’ The 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner from Canada and Europe.

Fleur Jaeggy

‘There are those who have an inborn gift for not being deceived in life.’ Translated from the Italian by Gini Alhadeff.

Catherine Hall

The Proof of Love won the Green Carnation Prize in 2011.

Issue 140

Colin Grant

‘I had the queer feeling of looking into a mirror of the projected future, of perhaps seeing how easily his fall could be a rehearsal for my own.’

Kenny Fries

‘Did Hearn feel comfortable in Japan because being a foreigner overshadowed his physical difference?’

Benoit Jutras

Kim Kyung Ju

‘Underneath the leaves that stack my upper lip / the reindeer do not share their love.’ Translated from the Korean by Jake Levine.

Denis Johnson

In the summer of 1917 Robert Grainier took part in an attempt on the life of a Chinese laborer caught, or anyway accused of, stealing from the company stores of the Spokane International Railway in the Idaho Panhandle.