Publication: Flash Frog

  • Sometimes she wishes he was dead, but then she’d miss him by Dawn Tasaka Steffler

    This story is about a parent’s dedication to her son even as he’s living on the streets with addiction issues. It’s super heavy and sad and deals with suicide, so if that’s not your thing, skip this one. Every year on May fifth, Marilyn combs the industrial streets near the Iwalei methadone clinic looking for…

  • A City by an Ocean with a Plant by a Window, and a Cat by Emily Rinkema

    There’s a line in the last paragraph of this story that took my breath away. With one phrase adds such depth to the protagonist of this story about a woman stuck in a relationship with an idiot. I won’t quote it below, read the story. …she slides in across from Cam who leans towards her…

  • In the Slipstream by Sarah Lynn Hurd

    This is a nostalgic story about perfect moments, and how it’s often impossible to see them until they’re long over. It’s short, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I finished it. It was the summer after college and we were in love—all six of us—with ourselves, with each other, with the expanse…

  • 1612 W. Washington

    A ghost story with beautiful turns of phrase, like this one: “At first, we’re haunted softly, like a pink sky overtaken by the creeping evening.”

  • Uniform

    Teenagers and tragedy. This one didn’t hit hard at first, but hours later I was thinking about it. It’s great.

  • In a voice too low to wake anybody

    A family member spiraling into depression and despondence, neglecting himself and his dogs. She again uses the second person as the point of view, and again things don’t unfold the way you expect. This one has a grim undertone of mental illness and loss, and the last paragraph, and the way the narrator’s voice evolves…