Most discussed stories

Party Line

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Mama reads about UFOs in paperback books and newspapers with big cloudy pictures. Her girlfriends know about flying saucers, too. They get drunk at night when they are sitting all alone in their living rooms because they are divorced or married to men who

First Job

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I thought each day died inside the clock.

He Said, She Said

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Maybe she would get married and have a baby, she said. Not with me, I said

Stranded

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They come to mind/ like ice flowers/ on the small panes

Eggshells

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The eggs got badder as the cook got madder

End of the World

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Dear End of the World. We're having a party. Stop by if you're in the neighborhood.

Prairie Yields

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The river’s not/ a river but/ a FEMA map/ of flooding probabilities.

Mabel Constructed the Quintessential Boundary.

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Mabel constructed the quintessential boundary. She carefully boiled down her pots and pans, her jewelry, her copper kettle, and the foils from forty six bottles of white pear cider into a silky metallic stew. Mable smeared the mixture onto a burlap…

Carver Country

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My first love was a woman of principle. Never deny your man was her motto.

A Map

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It was war without beginning or end.

Blue Pinto

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“Just curious,” Sean says, “but what’s up with the old Pinto out front?” She looks at him. “It’s my boyfriend’s.” Her green eyes are flat: What business of yours?

Unseenly

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Over the years, his face began to alter

Someone Emailed Me Last Night and Asked if I Would Write About Nachos.

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I fell into a crevasse once. I jumped off a bridge once, right before a train was to hit me. Jumped off roofs several times. I have a thing for jumping. The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to nachos.

Godot is a Heartbreaking Figment

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Godot is on the way.

Plum-Woman

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"...when my daddy found out about Jasper, it was too late— mama was already round-&-radiant with Jasper's child. "

Powerless

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7:23. The grid abandons us.

Love?

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There's a mutual recognition...

Three Mississippi Fictions

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When I was sixteen, my dad’s new wife and her daughter, Mary Ann, moved in, so I had to get out. I found a burned-out one story place on Corey Road near the gas plant. When it wasn’t raining, you could see right up through the roof to the stars.

Not That Kind of Pain

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What kind of pain is it?

On Being From the Dirty South, While not Considering Myself a Redneck

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How to not be a redneck? Basically, it is a matter of volume, ancestor worship, respect for the truth and a command of the English language.

Didn't I always let you have one of my cigarettes?

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I liked the taste in my mouth, mint and cigarettes and fresh and filthy.

Cows

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When you live in New Orleans, the only time you ever get to see cows is at the Winn-Dixie 24 Hour Super Store, in the back between the dairy and the seafood.

What She Remembers (Annie)

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The first thing she remembers is sunshine, then her own dawning, and feeling the lumps on her head and bruises on her face and pain in her heart and aloness of her soul.

Bone Dust Disco

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He stands at the 53 bus stop, boy shadow dust-cloaked and fading, jangling her keys in his pocket, echoes of a journey cut short.

Bus Ride

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Pretty boy looks over at me and grins, got a smoke?

The not so great Popsicle caper

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"Ha ha!" I said triumphantly, "I've got some left and you don't!"

Rwanda Suite: Slim

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Paris was a better place for African Americans in those days. Josephine Baker sent a spray of roses. James Baldwin helped him find a good apartment.

Into the Wild Blue Yonder

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Then it got quiet again, the kind of quiet that fills a car even with the radio on and the highway ticking away and the corn flying past regimented and silk tasseled.

More from the Chronicles of His Demise

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Only scotch and cheap champagne/ retain their reliable flavors.

Place de la Revolution

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We are a funny story, my brother and I. Twins of Africa in a kitchen on wheels the size of a cupboard, we serve tourists baguettes and pain au chocolat, in the gardens adjoining the square where the tricoteuses did their knitting, heads were chopped and..