Read stories written by talented authors from around the globe.

Dreams rise from the deep – dreams of forgotten treasure buried in hollows of shadow and silence, where the glint of gold calls out to the light like a dying star. Hope, delicate yet insistent, reaches with embroidered fingers to press against the drumbeat of my heart. I draw breath – not merely air, but awakening, slow, primal, and shattering in its release. A resurrection. A flickering vision. A single, dark eye widenin...

Your clouds gather and form over time Shielding me from the sun's crime Painting the skies with your paradigm A vision that is truly sublime Your rain pours onto my skin Your wind whirls me into a spin Washing me of my sin Cleansing me from the rot within Your thunder reverberates in my heart It speaks to me like a breathtaking piece of art Your booms are ever so clever I could listen to you rattle the earth forever Your...

Once upon a time there lived a tiny crab. Peeking from his modest hole, he found himself inside a majestic sandcastle, complete with moat and turrets. “Behold!” he proclaimed. “The sand gods finally giveth me the riches I deserve and crowned me King Clawdius!” He ruled over the seashells with an iron claw—for thirteen glorious minutes. Then, as the sun hid its face below the horizon, the enemy launched its attack. The tid...

I seethed with repressed anger, waiting with my parents at the gate for Lufthansa flight FL401 to board. Scowling, thinking, I hate you, Mom, for agreeing to this. I hate you, Dad, for telling Mom, “It will be a good experience for her.” I hate you, Uncle Jack and Aunt Betty, for offering to host me for the summer. Thanks for f@#king my summer! I hate you all. Uncle Jack was Dad’s brother. A career U.S. Air Force officer,...

She rented the house for six weeks. It was small, just one bedroom and a screen porch, with ceiling fans that wobbled when they turned. There was a beach a few minutes’ walk away, but she rarely went. She preferred the quiet of the mornings — the hum of insects, the slow warming of the air, the way the early light filtered softly through the house’s porch screens, pale and golden, casting a mesh of shadow across the floor...

Twelve minutes. Why am I so nervous? Of course, I was nervous then, too… I joined the line at the Dickson Dining Hall with the other high school students taking special summer courses at Cornell, and stood behind a cute blonde girl. Deciding that I wouldn’t be the shy nobody I was in high school, I said “Hi!” She turned and broke into a smile. “Hi yourself! So, what are you in for?” “Special relativity and quantum mechani...

He showed up on a Monday, carrying a skateboard, a chipped thermos and a camera with no strap. Then, very seriously – as though we weren’t already standing on a sandpit of seagulls – he asked, “Where’s the beach?” I pointed over my shoulder at the waves shuffling up and down the shore like an indecisive waiter. “Just past the seaweed. If you reach your childhood memories, you’ve gone too far.” He blinked. “That’s oddly po...

At first glance, Edenmere appears to have leapt off the pages of one of Millie’s childhood storybooks. Adorable pastel-painted shoppes with quaint coffee cafes and bakeries nestled between them line the streets. Scents of cinnamon, spice, and even chocolate delight her nostrils as she strolls along the speckled cobblestoned walkway. Golden lampposts stand watch on every corner, twisted into whimsical shapes, no two alike....

Heron, as I’d grown used to calling him, folded eight paper cranes as a eulogy to his former self, every day before he did anything else. He’d been doing this for months, preparing for the first of a series of surgeries that would make him more himself. We lived in Cove Town, in those early years, back when I still liked to be called Reeds, just my natal surname but it was better than the given name that I had long since...

“Good morning, Lil. Big day for you today, isn't it?” Lillian Jackson smiled up from her bed at the young man in the white coat, who was holding a cup of tea. For five years, she had lived at the Castle View Rest Home, ever since she had fallen and broken her elbow and shoulder. Crippled with arthritis, she was no longer able to look after herself, and so, after much soul-searching, she and her son agreed that it was for...

The wind howled a mournful dirge through the skeletal branches of the Blackwood Forest, a chilling prelude to the events that would unfold on that fateful night twenty-seven years ago. Young Lore, barely a man, sat beside his sister Elara, sharing stories under the light of the Harvest Moon. Elara, with her fiery spirit and insatiable curiosity, was recounting a local legend—the Whisperwind Graveyard, a place said to appe...

I took a hesitant step forward. “Are you Mama Poppina?” “Well, don’t yuh be shy; come closer!” Upon seeing me vacationing alone on the island, the cab driver, bellhop, and two fishermen insisted I find Mama Poppina. Who better than the locals to direct me, so I located her, running a cart of rotten fruit by the ocean. “Ya! I can tell yuh need some love in yuh life. Yuh insides are hollow. And mi fruits are magic!” Oh no....

Twelve minutes. Why am I so nervous? Of course, I was nervous then, too… I joined the line at the Dickson Dining Hall with the other high school students taking special summer courses at Cornell, and stood behind a cute blonde girl. Deciding that I wouldn’t be the shy nobody I was in high school, I said “Hi!” She turned and broke into a smile. “Hi yourself! So, what are you in for?” “Special relativity and quantum mechani...

As I sit here in the twilight of my life, I think back to the first love of my life. I was a kid and knew nothing of love or what it meant. Then it happened. Standing in the middle of a field of freshly mowed grass. The smell was intoxicating to me. I watched as the man emptied his bag full of grass and went on to the next field. I walked through the grass, and it stained my white shoes green. Then I stepped onto the dirt...

I always have this feeling that I’m chasing something. Something that makes me happy, maybe even makes me complete. Something beautiful like a butterfly that sits on a daisy when I walk through a deserted corner of the park on a sunny afternoon in spring. The butterfly sits peacefully surrounded by the white petals. I stand still and look at it. It looks so beautiful that it makes me smile and I wonder if I could catch it...

Dear AuthorAs you may be aware from my earlier letters, I am one of your biggest fans. I loved your last book — and I don't just mean I liked it a lot. I mean I loved it the way a man loves his wife, his children, his parents. The way a drowning man loves a life jacket, or the stranger who dives into the water to rescue him, heedless of the danger; the way that stranger loves others more than himself. I really, really lov...

It could be because I have walked down many a darkened road and taken many wrong turns that left me lost in the world, that I feel this way, but regardless the reason, I believe that we all have the ability to rise above the circumstances of our lives. Yes, I may get lost sometimes, but oh, the beautiful places I have found, and adventures I have had while lost! Sometimes, things don't work out the way we want them to, bu...

I came so far for Beauty And she took me down many roads Confident and Proud, up on the high;Broken and Humbled, down in the low I traveled so far for Beauty, Found myself a long way from home Digging graves in the moonlight--I buried my heart alone I sacrificed for her, my BeautyI held Isaac to the altarHer praise I thought she'd give meKnife in hand, I did not falter.Although, pleasure came from BeautyHer laurels I was...