selected by Heather Cripps

For the Hillside Boys

The first time the girls conjured the devil, The Hillside Boys had just announced their fall ‘97 tour dates and Fresno was not on the list, half a dozen held-b...

Lake Shore Limited

A train pulling through the gray winter on the morning after Christmas. Sky still dark, snow melting in the drizzle of rain, windows fogged so the scenery tick...

A Sister’s Guide to Grief

Of course there is a right way to grieve. That is to carry your solemn soul tucked deep inside, to smile when smiling is called for, to keep the tears unspille...

Flying Ant Day

Alice’s feet were the first part of her to disappear. It happened gradually; not toe by toe by toe but a slow fadeout that no one else seemed to notice. An inn...

Ambulances on My Block

“And what of the dead? They lie without shoes  in their stone boats. They are more like stonethan the sea would be if it stopped. They refuse &n...

Georgina Willis

We weren’t the wild-grown, wayward girls we often daydreamed we were. We babysat for our neighbors and complimented our mothers’ baked salmon; we drove our dad...

The Big Stunt

My wife is threatening to make the jump on her 1982 Kawasaki. “You take it back,” she says. “Nope.” She revs the engine, sending our two little Pomera...

A Girl Attends a Pep Rally

On the walk home from the bus, she practices what she will say about her day. There was a pep rally this afternoon. Principal Wheezely Weasley gave a speech I ...

The Mite in My Left Eye

The curtains in my room never keep anything out—not the sun's audacity to be shining this bright this early, and not the sounds of the neighbors fighting—again...

Exhale

On our way home from the food truck, I tug Dylan’s elbow and he nearly drops his burrito—pinching it, lightning-quick, between gloved fingers. “Catastrophe ave...