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I became convinced I would die that night and dialed 911. She told me to relax and to breathe, and I told her I couldn’t breathe.
—From "Death by Cake," a story by Mary Luna Robledo, The Acentos Review (October 2022).
His inflammation persists. If I speak to his sick side, he cannot understand me. Don’t you feel it? I ask. What? he asks, and tilts his head. I feel his lips, try to explain the difference between feeling and touching.
—From "Wakashu or," a story by Tara Meister, translated from the Austrian German by Lara Waas, LIT Magazine, Issue 43 (Summer 2026).
Berlin, 1977. Helga recounted the legend of Snow Red as Ismail, engrossed, sat staring out the window from his desk. It was a nightly routine of Ismail's, like brushing his teeth.
—From Spinner of Darkness & Other Tales, a collection of stories by Intan Paramaditha in a wonderful pocket-sized trilingual edition, translated from the Indonesian into English by Stephen Epstein and into German by Pauline Kurbasik (BTW, 2015). This segment is from "Snow Red," which begins on page 29.
I had started work at the Authority two weeks before, and in many respects I was still a newcomer. Even so, I tried to ask as few questions as I could. I wanted to become a person to be reckoned with as quickly as possible.
—From The Room, a novella by Jonas Karlsson, translated from the Swedish by Neil Smith (Hogarth, 2015). Originally published in Stockholm, Sweden, as "Rummet" in the collection Den perfekte vännen (The Perfect Friend) by Jonas Karlsson (Wahlström & Widstrand, 2009).
Rowan's brother, Tulip, is upstairs avoiding another lecture on the great embrace of Gaia.
—From The Delicacy, a graphic novel by James Albon (Top Shelf Productions, 2021).