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Tag: Short Story

Doris W. Cheng

I resolved to stay close to my mother.

Joe Pitkin

She described their world at last in a language that they recognized as true.

Jamel Brinkley

It’s a thing about being a man. To be so stingy, to deny even a sip of yourself. To deny and deny and deny until one day it all comes out as a violence, like water spewing forth from a hose. 

Peter Kazon

When you weren’t sure if a guy was gay, you asked if he was Canadian. The straight ones always look puzzled, and told you they were American.

Noel Quiñones

We knew language better than anybody, how you could crack it out of fortune cookies or loop it into a rhythm or rip it to shreds and make money off the confetti. 

Jeffery Renard Allen

What do the dead owe the living?

Swati Prasad

“We were idyllic in our isolation.”

Parashar Kulkarni

“In the East, it is the cow that animalizes the man. Hence, the native occupies this intermediate space between man and beast, which we term ‘savage.’”

Sascha Stronach

The world never really ended. An apocalypse wasn’t an end so much as a change of state, ice into water.

Michael Tod Powers

“I will be a tightrope walker,” she said, “and I will walk across the air to you.”

Nicholas Maistros

“Most were drills. Pilots weren’t to know which were the real deal. They were not to think of the lethal effects of their duty.” A pilot is pulled aside by a desperate woman seeking help.

Ian Maxton

This is my version of the story, but I will illuminate only a corner of it, one that ran parallel to and underneath it, revealing what was left in its wake.

Jane Kalu

“Abroadness became my obsession.” When a young Nigerian girl is invited to go live with her uncle in Canada, it sets in motion a peculiar friendship with someone she has long envied.

Jamie Figueroa

“You can’t go to Mass like that.” A woman’s mother wakes up dramatically transformed, leading to a reappraisal of their relationships.

Olivia Cheng

“She stuffed spinach in her mouth until her teeth were a hayish green.” A woman’s extreme diet earns praise from church friends but concern from her family.

Katrina Prow

“When I flick the light on, my ceiling hangs open, a wide mouth.” After her bedroom springs a leak, an English professor tries to help a struggling student.

Faraaz Mahomed

“She would sit upright in her bed and recall the moment she saw Aisha’s face.” An Iraqi émigré explains to a New York doctor why she has enrolled in a study for a new antidepressant.

William Pei Shih

“I was my father’s son. My father was Nai Nai’s least favorite.” A Taiwanese American man, driven from home by a secret, reevaluates his childhood memories of his grandmother.

Ronan Ryan

“Closing her eyes, she pictured Abbie in the funeral home.” Grieving the death of her best friend, a young woman travels to Singapore to stay with an aunt she barely knows.

Rolando Rodriguez

"Never do unto me what your uncle has done to us." A family member's disappearance leads to personal revelations. 

Lin King

“My mother has not slept for seven days.” A Taiwanese woman’s brother avoids calling their mother, setting off an insomniac unraveling.

Josephine Ishmon

“‘No,’ Miho said, shaking her head. ‘I don’t want to share.’” Private tragedy forces a New York woman into attending group addiction therapy sessions.

Catalina Bartlett

“I am wearing a fake diamond ring. It cost ten dollars in quarters and lots of concentration.” A mother, her daughter, and her romantic rival try to outmaneuver one another.

Reginald McKnight
"The Earth’s skin had become a million toads." After a town undergoes a disturbing transformation, a boy finds a solitary companion.
Ida Harris
“The rising voices wanted to twist arms. The violence of their speech spread across her shoulders, inched down her backside.” A young woman struggles to have an abortion.
Racquel Goodison

“Every time she noticed he was dressed for sport, she’d head for the door.” In this short story, a young Jamaican man weighs his responsibility to his family against his love of biking.

Lucia Edafioka

“The something we had been waiting for had happened.” In this short story, the traces of a missing Nigerian woman haunt her neighbors, who struggle with how intensely they had disliked and envied her.

Yeoh Jo-Ann
“I could have been a clever girl. When the first of the Japanese bombs fell on Penang, my father stopped us from going to school. And when the war was over, there was no question of going back. So I married your father.” Three generations of a family struggle to maintain their way of life in a country changed irrevocably by war.
Jessica Hudgins
“Aunt Steph got ugly after Gammy died, although people were often ugly to her first.” In this short story, a woman reflects on a series of charmed summers before loss descended.
Diana M. Chien
“Her sister was only visiting for as long as it took the mother to die.” A family reunion takes a surreal turn in this short story.
Anjanette Delgado
A woman, menaced late at night by catcalling men, tries a novel approach to self-defense. Translated from the Spanish by the author and Arthur M. Dixon.
Sam Bett, Izumi Suzuki
The last humans on a planet attempt a nice family outing—except that they can’t remember how. A short story from Japanese counterculture icon Izumi Suzuki, available for the first time in English in a new translation by Sam Bett.
Julian K. Jarboe
“Come back, Sebastian. You are shaking. That is not a productive movement.” As Sebastian prepares to go work on the moon, he reviews his contract’s terms and conditions and wonders what his mother must think.
Abdellah Taïa
“I see it all. What you did, Papa. I’m not angry at you. Don’t worry.” A Moroccan woman living in exile in Paris remembers her father’s dying days.
Hussani Abdulrahim
“I want to open the door again. I want to bring him back. And I want him to last longer this time.” A grieving widow makes a man of mud.
Aruni Kashyap
“I was perhaps judging him. His poor choice. The way he forsook the greater good for the pleasures of the bed, or something like that. I was sleepy. I wasn’t sure what I was thinking. Probably I was surprised by my bad luck.” Short Story
Abdellah Taïa

In a wrenching dialogue, a man searches for human connection, even as he recalls childhood abuse. Translated from the French by Amanda DeMarco.

Noel Cheruto
“Pinch off fist-sized balls and roll these into flat circles. Circles you turned in the morning of the coup.” Short Story
Theo Costantino
“'I felt no hunger but the habit of food struck me intensely. My nightgown was grubby and torn. My limbs were scraped, spotted with yellow bruises, but I felt no pain.” Short Story
Kechi Nomu
An aging Nigerian bus park preacher dreams of her own church, or even just a shiny megaphone, when she finds herself cut off from her congregation. Short Story
Sagit Emet

Two

Two orphans, who believe they are too old to ever be adopted, get a surprise chance. Translated from the Hebrew by Yaron RegevShort Story
Samuel R. Delany

A man seeks intimacy during a time of crisis. 

JR Fenn

When bees around the world exhibit a frightening new behavior, a researcher takes comfort in a familiar hive. Short Story

Mike McClelland
Years after an extinction event nearly wiped out humanity, a team of scientists search Venezuela for signs of life and evidence of what caused the tragedy. Short Story
Alejandro Varela
Beating cancer should be the biggest challenge in his life, not trying to catch a cab in Manhattan. Short Story
Maria Dahvana Headley
In a lost tale of Casanova, the citizens of a country at the center of the Earth must give up their home—and their women—to colonizers. Short Story
Sumudu Samarawickrama

An aging AI researcher, alone with her robot companion, must make a difficult decision when the android begins to malfunction. Short Story

Jack Gain
Stuck in an apartment with his ex-boyfriend, a man meets with the government agent who will decide whether the couple has really broken up. Short Story

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"An indispensable pillar of the public sphere."

That’s what sociologist Alondra Nelson says of Boston Review. Independent and nonprofit, we believe in the power of collective reasoning and imagination to create a more just world.

That’s why there are no paywalls on our website, but we can’t do it without the support of our readers. Please make a tax-deductible donation to help us create a more inclusive and egalitarian public sphere—open to everyone, regardless of ability to pay.