staff picks

Nobody loves books more than us. We’re a team of readers with broad interests and strong feelings about the books on our shelves.  The Odditoriumby Melissa Pritchard  In each...

READ AN EXCERPT Excerpt from “Our Song” by Ander Monson Copyright © 2020 by Ander Monson Forthcoming in The Gnome Stories, Graywolf Press, February 2020 I no longer believe...

READ AN EXCERPT Alone in his shop, Lena on the phone, fifty miles away in her own lonely shop, she told him they thought it was breast cancer. The...

READ AN EXCERPT She bends forward, pushing back a cumbersome, invasive purse (which frequently distresses her by banging into people in crowds, ruining her otherwise perfect unobtrusiveness, but which...

READ AN EXCERPT Excerpt from “We Are Meant for Greater Things” From Earthly Delights and Other Apocalypses by Jen Julian Winner of the 2018 Press 53 Award for Short...

READ AN EXCERPT Clinton came from good quarreling stock. William and Macie Slade’s bickering, arguments, and barbed debates were the stuff of local legend. After one infamous fight in...

READ AN EXCERPT Excerpt from “Longest Night of the Year”  Sex. That’s all Cameron had really wanted. Uncommitted, internet-facilitated sex and maybe a little conversation. But the woman he...

READ AN EXCERPT Excerpt from “Ten Penny”From The Seven Stages of Anger and Other Stories by Wendy J. FoxWinner of the 2014 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction M....

READ AN EXCERPT Damian and Amelia had four meetings with production companies who wanted to option the book. The first three studios all pitched different versions of the same...

READ AN EXCERPT In the back of the house there is a corner room that does not open onto the lush and well-tended garden. Its shutters are indolent eyelids...