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Its Name is ‘Bird’
Tunisia
Jalal wasn’t happy unless he was wreaking havoc. He was the village’s fearsome little devil. At any time he might raid the neighbours’ chicken coops and rabbit hutches. Then we’d see him grilling the meat outdoors,...
Its Name is ‘Bird’
Kamal Riahi
3 min
The Mother of all Defiance – Fourth Place
USA
Mom gave me a block of cheddar cheese and a sleeve of Fig Newtons when I left home for California in August of 1983. Apparently back then, when crossing the country alone in an unreliable foreign...
The Mother of all Defiance – Fourth Place
Mimi Broihier
9 min
The White Flower
Russia
Our friends the Zaitsevs live out of town “The air is so much better out in the suburbs,” they say. That is, they can’t afford to live where the air is bad. A small group of...
The White Flower
Teffi
4 min
Close to the Body – Fifth Place
Israel
I remember a tree. Its crown awning the path. I remember a large trunk, thicker than any I had seen before. I remember roots cleaving the black earth, bursting it asunder, like snakes fighting free and...
Close to the Body – Fifth Place
Sarit Elkon
9 min
Cicada
Canada
When grandpa was naked, I didn’t see his doohickey. I was on the porch an’ his belly hung big an’ low like a melon. Mama said, “For the love of God, Charlie…” She called her dad...
Cicada
Dean Gessie
9 min
Simidolia
Argentina
One Sunday afternoon a family was digesting its midday meal and having a desultory debate about which of the many dishes they’d just put away was chiefly responsible for their present lethargy. From one corner of...
Simidolia
Marcelo Cohen
12 min
The Curfew Tolls
USA
“It is not enough to be the possessor of genius—the time and the man must conjoin. An Alexander the Great, born into an age of profound peace, might scarce have troubled the world—a Newton, grown up...
The Curfew Tolls
Stephen Vincent Benét
25 min
Ladybird
Morocco
I held an unusually long reed in my hand and I dipped it as deep as I could into the river. It fell in and disappeared in front of me. I took my feet out of...
Ladybird
Latifa Labsir
7 min
Ligaments
Spain
For Juanina Jaguen, my girlfriend now and forever   “Orchids!” she cried. “Orchids! Those are orchids!” I was not in the mood for orchids. My leg was in agony. Not just one part of it, the...
Ligaments
Hipólito Gonzales Navarro
12 min
Karim the Romantic, Bather of the Dead
Palestine
“I’m a romantic, you brutes, and I adore Nizar Qabbani!” This was Karim’s only reply to people’s accusations and taunts. And it was on the basis of this reply that the camp residents had added the...
Karim the Romantic, Bather of the Dead
Ziad Khadash
4 min
Ballet
Argentina
The blinds are pulled down; the old couple who live opposite must be on holiday. Before, the old woman would come out every morning to water the plants on her balcony. The old man would stay...
Ballet
Federico Falco
22 min
Jabir Sabeel
Sudan
Citizen Jabir Sabeel awoke to the alarm of his Nokia mobile phone at exactly 6:05. He tried, like every morning, to cover his face with a pillow, but he felt an awful weakness. He could not...
Jabir Sabeel
Mansour Mohammad El Souwaim
2 min
Cannibalism In The Cars
USA
I visited St. Louis lately, and on my way West, after changing cars at Terre Haute, Indiana, a mild, benevolent-looking gentleman of about forty-five, or maybe fifty, came in at one of the way-stations and sat...
Cannibalism In The Cars
Mark Twain
13 min
He and She
Russia
They are nomads. Only Paris is graced with their presence for months; they are stingy to Berlin, Vienna, Neapoli, Madrid and other capitals. In Paris they feel quasi-at home. For them, Paris is the capital, their...
He and She
Anton Chekhov
11 min
Chaim and Me (A chapter from novel)
Algeria
Due to the imminent end of my summer break, and shortly before resuming my work at the Teacher Training College at the beginning of the third week of September, I reassured my wife, Zuleika al-Nadra, that...
Chaim and Me (A chapter from novel)
Habib Sayah
6 min
A Woman in a Space
Israel
A woman is workspace when will someone love you? Have you ever stayed seated in your chair until lunchtime, you drink lots of water- your body took the shape of a chair. A woman in workspace,...
A Woman in a Space
Tehila Hakimi
3 min
Lydia
Germany
We used to jump, Lydia and I, as high and as often as we could, hands high over our heads, wearing colourful dresses, our knees pulled up, our feet in stout shoes we were allowed to...
Lydia
Zsuzsa Bánk
10 min
The Pink Tuber
Russia
On Thursday Anna found out that she was pregnant. When she came home from work, she didn’t start dinner but instead sat at the tiny kitchen table, put her gaunt hands on the new oilcloth, and...
The Pink Tuber
Vladimir Sorokin
6 min
Scenario (A Chapter from a Novel)
Palestine
We didn’t stay long at the bar. After we got Melanie’s text, I had the feeling that each of us wanted the other to finish their drink so we could take off for one of our...
Scenario (A Chapter from a Novel)
Saleem Albeik
7 min
Soul Anatomy
USA
323 Juneberry Way, Deptford, NJ 08096 (856) 848-0501 Lmanfredo@comcast.net   In certain places there exists a permeating pointlessness to life with an aura of despair so acute that its inhabitants come to be unafraid, or, at...
Soul Anatomy
Lou Manfredo
29 min
Rock-n-Roll Flower
Mexico
Incredible the animal that first dreamed of another animal. Monstrous the first vertebrate that succeeded in standing on two feet and thus spread terror among the beasts still normally and happily crawling close to the ground...
Rock-n-Roll Flower
Luis Carlos Fuentes Ávila
20 min
Black Foam
Eritrea
A Chapter from the novel, Black Foam   (7)   He placed the suitcase lightly into the tray, and then took off to meet it on the other side. However, the soldier across from him waved...
Black Foam
Haji Jaber
6 min
Some People Run in Shorts
Faroe Islands
A runner asked me one morning on my way to work, “Hey, you. Can you tell me what time it is?” I replied, “Ten to.” “To what?” he asked. I stared at him briefly. “To eight,”...
Some People Run in Shorts
Sólrún Michelsen
7 min
The Socialist
Japan
He was a young socialist. His father, a minor official, had thus threatened to disown him. Yet he had remained true to his convictions, for he was possessed of both burning zeal and supportive friends. They...
The Socialist
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
2 min
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