Author: Amy DeBellis

  • The Shortlist for May 23, 2025

    The Shortlist for May 23, 2025

    Stories by blog faves K.A. Polzin, Emily Rinkema and Amy DeBellis, plus first-timers Patrick Hueller, Luke O’Neil and Izzi Sneider

  • Snowflakes by Amy DeBellis

    It’s been a while since I’ve shared an Amy DeBellis story, but this one about the one that got away was funny and bittersweet: I wake up the next morning with the sensation that my lips weigh ten pounds and are about to drop off my face. I’m too scared to look in the mirror,…

  • The Shortlist: March 7, 2025

    The Shortlist: March 7, 2025

    Eight (!) fiction stories from Kelly Robson, Amy DeBellis, Katherine Plumhoff, Mark Ifanson, Chris Scott, Nathan Leslie, and Kevin Light-Roth

  • Marrow by Amy DeBellis

    DeBellis is so good at dropping one sentence that builds an entire story around it. There’s a reason she’s a favourite around these parts. In this case it’s this line: Although it is true that he has not hit her since he learned she was pregnant with his child.

  • The Shortlist: January 24, 2025

    The Shortlist: January 24, 2025

    Five short stories from Emily Hampson, Emily Rinkema, Amy DeBellis, Amorak Huey and Andrea Cavedo.

  • Mercy by Amy DeBellis

    This story from blog fave DeBellis was nominated for a Pushcart Prize – it’s about how we understand our loved ones and the world around us differently as we age. It’s got a surprise at the end, and Amy’s unique voice carries the story in a way that doesn’t feel like fiction at all.

  • The Prank by Amy DeBellis

    A group of kids set up to prank a peer, but things go sideways. The reveal in this story made my jaw drop.

  • Souvenirs

    A woman reminisces about a failed relationship with increasingly distressing mementos.

  • Oblivion

    About Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, brought on as a sidekick to Long Covid. It’s eye-opening and terrifying: During my first year of being bedbound, I enter a decline that seems like it will never end. I’m in free fall, my baseline sinking lower and lower each month, and I can only watch as it continues, this…

  • Teeth