American Short Fiction

I am THAT wife. I am Suzy Homemaker. I don't go anywhere; don't do much of anything. I stay home, I cook, I clean, I take care of my man. I am faithful to my man. I am a fraud. I'm not happy, least not completely. I am unfulfilled. I'm missing something. My husband is a great man but he doesn't get my motor running or my heart racing. And when was the last time he made my panties wet? Has he ever made my panties wet? Our sex life, when it happens, is vanilla at best. But I make it work, you know? Because that's what wives do. But then one day, I am accosted by a sexy, demanding, enticing ...

When Cohn Holland sets his sights on Eliza Allen, he’s captivated and is drawn to her dark beauty. The new divorcée is hurting from her ex-husband’s betrayal and trying to build a new life of independence; finding love again is the last thing on Eliza’s mind. Sensing Eliza’s pain and mistrust, Cohn tries to prove that he can be all the man she will ever need— in and out of the boardroom, even if he is younger. Cohn doesn’t give up easily and will annihilate Eliza’s doubts and fears one by one until he makes her his for good. This is an older woman and younger man romance with...

Queen Torah- had delivered only stillborn princes to her husband. She decides that she will choose a lady for her husband to have sons with. Their children will be legitimized by the council. Only after any children she gives him. Her plan does not go as she thought it to. Leaving animosity and hostility in it’s wake. King Jerrold- wants no parts of his wife’s plan. He has never had an affair and would not start now. But, he loves his wife and seeks to make her happy. So he goes along with it. Finding that he is beginning to have a care for the lady chosen by his wife, he is left to ...

Returning to the city that inspired his first prize-winning book, Lost in the City, Jones has filled this new collection with people who call Washington, D.C., home. Yet it is not the city's power brokers that most concern him but rather its ordinary citizens.

Everlasting is the sixteenth novella in the ongoing story of the Andersen family. Livia Andersen was a woman who held her family together with a quiet smile and an iron will. It’s been months since her death and her children and grandchildren she leaves behind continue to grapple with the shifting changes in their lives now that she’s gone. Some look back at what else has been lost to them and struggle to make sense of it. Claire Andersen Slavik has invited Ethan Gilchrist to visit her lakeside resort so that he can research his family’s history in the area. She knows it’s important...

"Her immediate concern was money." So begins the first story in Manuel Muñoz's dazzling new collection. In it, Delfina has moved from Texas to California's Central Valley with her husband and small son, and her isolation and desperation force her to take a risk that ends in profound betrayal.

(en-tan-gle-ment): noun- a complicated or compromising relationship or situation  Five couples, five stories about friendships, trust issues, forgiveness, and love that resolved over time. In Dare to Love, Sapphire and Zaiden hook up one time. Three years later, when Zaiden returns to the states, he finds out that he has a three-year-old daughter. Will they find their way back to each other, or will they remain cordial because of their daughter? In Retail Love, Manny notices Sienna. Manny has FWBs (Friends with Benefits), not relationships. Sienna falls for Manny. One night and many more ...

Like the small towns J. California Cooper has so vividly portrayed in her previous novels and story collections, Wideland, Oklahoma, is home to ordinary Americans struggling to raise families, eke out a living, and fulfill their dreams. In the early 20th century, Irene and Val fall in love in Wideland. While carving out a home for themselves, they also allow neighbors Bertha and Joseph to build a house and live on their land.

All is well with longshoreman Uncle Eddie, kindhearted Aunt Beatrice and live-in niece Catherine until the secret guests from Italy arrive and Uncle Eddie turns from generous and welcoming to jealous, difficult and self-serving resulting in disastrous encounters and dark consequences, as a Greek modern tragedy. The story is set in working-class 1950s Brooklyn, in the Red Hook neighborhood with “a view from the bridge.” The book is the prose version of Arthur Miller’s 1955 play and it is perfect for a pleasant and intensive reading. It comes with an introduction, with notes and ...

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions.

Romeo’s irrational decision that ended Tiana, Ebony, and Malaysia’s lives has finally come back to haunt him. Now his brothers, and his entire crew are in deadly danger, having been made the targets of a heartless assassin. With a hit list circulating, the brothers must eliminate the threat before the Grim Reaper hits their next target… ROMEO!With Chico recently released from prison, he has no choice but to get his hands dirty once again in order to protect his boys. Racing against time, to find out the true identity of the assassin, Chico orchestrates a plan to draw out the beautiful...

To see her is to want her. To touch her is to crave her. To love her is to give her everything you are. Jasmine has always been the strong one, the person everyone else depends on. She never thought to take care of herself first. But now it's time for her to give over control to someone else. For just one night, she needs to be taken care of in all the ways she deserves and she's going to love every moment. Ian knew this was his opportunity and there was no stopping him. He'd given Jasmine time to understand just how good they would be together, but she’s resisted their attraction. If he ...

A woman headed nowhere, a cowboy looking for purpose, are snowed in together during an unexpected Christmas blizzard. Neither are looking for romance. Love has other ideas. As the first snowflakes began to fall gently from the sky, Amy Mitchell found herself driving along a deserted country road, her mind filled with a sense of aimlessness. Not wanting to spend Christmas at her planned destination, she wanted hope and to escape the pressures of her everyday life and find some semblance of peace. Meanwhile, Dawson Jackson, a rugged cowboy with a troubled past, found himself on the same ...

Millie Two Bears lives alone in a trailer in the heart of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. Since her husband went to jail, she’s been on the outs with the reservation. And it’s not just people she has to contend with. Now the prairie dogs are moving in on her patch of land. When a strange woman comes into Millie’s life, and Millie’s rodent war escalates, a fateful confrontation with vengeance, secrets, and survival is just underfoot.

This year’s selection of science fiction and fantasy stories, chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and bestselling author of the Divergent series Veronica Roth, showcases a crop of authors that are willing to experiment and tantalize readers with new takes on classic themes and by exchanging the ordinary for the avant-garde. Folktales and lore come alive, the dead rise, the depths of space are traversed, and magic threads itself through singular moments of love and loss, illuminating the circulatory nature of life, death, the in-between, and the hereafter.

For Unique, life is good until her dope-dealing boyfriend, Took, is arrested and winds up in jail. Now she's broke as a joke, trying to put every petty hustle into play to chase hard times away from the door. With an empty refrigerator, a stack of bills piling up, a tenth-grade education, a big butt and a smile, it doesn't take long for her to learn to pull the wool over the eyes of any fool who's blinded by her good looks.

A war hero on the run. A girl behind barbed wire. A love letter to hope in the darkest times. In 1944 California, Aiko Takeda writes letters to her childhood friend, Takeshi "Taki" Nakamura, a Nisei soldier serving with the famed 442nd Infantry Regiment in Europe. Through their letters, their bond deepens across oceans and gunfire. But when her letters suddenly stop, Taki fears the worst. Learning of the U.S. government's internment of Japanese Americans, Taki makes a life-altering decision: he deserts his unit and sets out on a perilous journey across continents and borders to find Aiko. ...

Ayesha Shetty lost her brother seven years ago, the same time she lost everything else important to her: her dreams, her fierce independence, and the man she loved. Not wanting to see her mother hurt anymore, she put her wild self away and became the dutiful daughter her mother needed and took on her brother’s role in the family business. Now her best friend’s big, fat Indian wedding is a chance to get away from her endless duties at the restaurant and maybe even have some fun (if she remembers how).

Here, gathered in one volume, are the stories that made Clarice a Brazilian legend. Originally a cloth edition of 86 stories, now we have 89 in all, covering her whole amazing career, from her teenage years to her deathbed. In these pages, we meet teenagers becoming aware of their sexual and artistic powers, humdrum housewives whose lives are shattered by unexpected epiphanies, old people who don't know what to do with themselves - and in their stories, Clarice takes us through their lives - and hers - and ours.

In this striking and bleak, yet luminous debut collection, Nathan Ballingrud, winner of the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award, uses the trappings of the Gothic and the uncanny to investigate a distinctly American landscape: The loneliest and darkest corners of contemporary life. Ballingrud’s stories are love stories. They’re also monster stories. Sometimes the monsters collected here are vampires or werewolves.