Surrealist Flash Fiction: “The Hospital of the All-But-Dead”

The Hospital of the All But Dead cover

This is actually a very old piece, originally written a decade ago and then revamped about five years later. Something about it keeps drawing me back. Perhaps I ought to call it a prose poem rather than a story, though… Cover by Aero Gallerie. The patient Talla wakes in the hospital of the all-but-dead, and the … Read more

Environmental Horror Flash Fiction: “The Seahorses”

Seahorse holding a cotton swab

This story originally appeared on Wattpad as an entry to the #PlanetorPlastic writing contest. I went the horror route because why not? Cover illustration by Erica Anderson, digitization by Jesse Lubera. In John’s dreams, seals thrashed, their necks throttled in plastic twine; birds lay on moonlit sand dunes, knickknacks bursting their guts. He’d stand in … Read more

Translated Poem: Maria Petrovykh’s “Muse”

Moon - Maria Petrovykh's Muse in Translation

When I asked a professor of Russian at my university for suggestions on lesser-known and less frequently translated Russian poets, she suggested Silver Age poet Maria Petrovykh. Petrovykh was friends with such luminaries as Anna Akhmatova and Osip Mandelstam, and although they appreciated her work, she didn’t publish much or get a whole lot of … Read more