Steller’s Weekly

  • Justin Courter – The New Vegetation

    The fact that the singularity has been achieved and involves us not at all is almost as devastating to the mind as this revanchist vegetation is to the body. After decades of an evocative dance (intertwining limbs and even organs, the spreading of metal fingers at the command of the motor cortex, the heart freely…

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  • Frank Diamond – Family Secrets

    Marilyn Masterson awakes, sitting forward suddenly as if she’d been cozy in bed at home and one of her daughters had just cried out. But she’s not home. She’s in her office. She’s at work. She still faces the window. Outside, the rain still falls as it did when she dozed off for … how…

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  • Gary Miller – Hair

    Tear gas and Mike’s flamingo pink hair were two of the things on Harold’s mind as he stepped from his car. A strong gust of unusually cold October wind swept the hat from his head. “Shit,” he said as he watched the hat tumble down the street toward the courthouse, eventually lodging in the greasy…

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  • J.P. Young – Return to Childhood’s End

    The carnival that signified the finish of the summer would also be the subconscious destination of Mr. Charles Miller. Charles had business that brought him to Chicago. To his delight not only had his affairs been successfully resolved, but the matter concluded earlier than he had expected. He now had several extra days before he…

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  • Nathan Zuehlke – Burnt Hollow

    The warm dry air seemed heavier than normal. Something was brewing… The sky. It wore an unwelcoming orange blazing face over a mid-western American forest. “It’s dry, too dry,” a chipmunk observed with a paw full of sand, “Where’s the rain? What happened to the wet season this spring? This forest is a tinderbox ready…

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  • Vince Dowdle Jr. – The Amish Burn Box

    Caleb Yoder was dying. Everyone knew about his imminent death, for everyone had witnessed his monthly, then weekly, and then daily decline due to the terrible progression of his cancer. We also knew it was probably only a matter of days – if not hours – until he passed. The whole community prayed for him,…

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  • Kory Ludden – Avarice

    Cartwheels rattled and shook over untrodden lands of desolate waste. The ground lay barren of rocks and small pebbles. No grass grew here, and the trees were black and leafless. The carriages lurch back and forth over every rock and rubble. Over forty carts move as a channel carrying refugees of fallen kingdom. Famine had…

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  • Dina Sokal – The Hug

    “You know…I didn’t need your hug,” Louis said. He stood at Julia’s desk the day after almost hitting a little girl, alone in a busy intersection near work, a kitchen store in Baltimore. He no longer wanted to think about the girl being alone or what would have happened if his truck crashed into her.…

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  • George Surilas – The Pit

    The pit, at first, could not rightly be classified as a pit, but more of a hole. It appeared one day in the center of the town square. It was roughly the depth and diameter of a bucket that a child might build sandcastles at the beach with. It was also curious for its uniformity.…

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