Carly Stone The Impressionists Winner of the 2024 American Literary Review Essay Contest, Judged by Dinty W. Moore clarity I ask the barber what he would be if he was [...]

Ira Sukrungruang Passed Away I tell my four-year-old son his fish RB has passed away. I say “passed away” because “died” and “dead” contain the same hard sound at the [...]

Graham Marema Songwood I. Grandaddy Dies In one story, Grandaddy dies. In this story, on your way to Songwood, you’ll see a road sign with my name on it. It’s [...]

Charlotte Stevenson The Molt It was, but it wasn’t. All the details were there—the undulating texture of brown, segmented skin, and needle-sharp, serrated forearms—but this was not actually a mantid, [...]

Jody Keisner Surprise! You're Adopted After David Shields, “42 Tattoos” When a woman caresses her belly during the final months of pregnancy, her fetus reaches for the uterine wall, as [...]

Nancy Huggett The Perseids Winner of the 2023 American Literary Review Essay Contest, Judged by Kendra Vanderlip The night of her first major stroke, we stay up to watch the Perseids. We [...]

Talia Adry The Tide Pool Runner-up for the 2023 American Literary Review Essay Contest, Judged by Kendra Vanderlip I wanted to stay still that spring—in the moment before the golden-eyed grass produced [...]

Tracy Neiman The Last Leg of the Journey Finalist for the 2023 American Literary Review Essay Contest, Judged by Kendra Vanderlip On my forehead, I wear a Post-it with my name on [...]

Steffan Hruby The Forge "He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his [...]

Kristine Langley Mahler Fixing a Hole with Dave and Trina Langley Kristine Langley Mahler is the author of Curing Season: Artifacts (WVU Press, 2022) and A Calendar is a Snakeskin (Autofocus, 2023). Her work has [...]

Kelsey Ward The Student Body I hadn’t thought about him in more than a year when I walked into that ground floor classroom on the first day of the [...]