I recently finished two short works of non-fiction. The first was Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector and the second was Hand to Mouth by Paul Auster. Each of which were remarkably unique. Clarice is a rightfully cherished Brazillian gem, while Auster is the resilient American from the Bowery. The books…

We are now at the point where we have to touch base almost everyday. We do this mostly to remind one another of what might happen should we choose to move back home. Apparently home is El Paso despite having lived in Chicago for over three years. …

She got home from work early. The drag of her key in the old locks startled me because I wasn’t expecting her home so early. The first thing to come through the door was her tall red beanie that was folded wool clods around her ears; then from the bottom…

It was already midnight when he and the new hire, Dominique, were finally done unloading the crates. In the lobby, it looked like someone was getting ready to assemble a micro-home in the sunken apse and down the steps near an idle fountain that reeked with a sour-penny tang. They…

Carolina was the eldest of three children born from Rosa Pimentel. They lived beyond the city limits in a single bedroom which was really a converted garage. The room was always dark no matter the time of day and when Rosa would turn on the television their few belongings would…

She didn’t appreciate it when her friends used the word proxy. She much preferred substitute, and at least surrogate sounds like something human. Proxy made her feel like a small pawn in a government conspiracy or a unit to be measured in reference to a standard locked in a safe…

i retreat in fear, by a green and brush heavy labyrinth among pillars by the sea, like a pier; although these pillars do not hold up life, but darkness, above my head, within the labyrinth, a resting place for madness which if activated could harm me; i run, with my eyes agape, and at its end, i find a cottage, looking in not…

This is a collaborative expansion of The Metroplex, by Jesus Olivas. Read more from this universe, here. In the distance, the towers darkened as the sun descended. The blooming mirror fields began to refract. On the mountain sprawled hundreds of dwelling lights where workers of the mines and factories cycled…

His partner stayed in the truck, and he alone approached the home. At the face of the door shadows were dropped and unrendered, ceasing and like any glimpse of objects fasting their source, uncertain. It was getting dark but the horizon gave a brutal light and looked like the burning…