Empty Bottle in My Bones

by Bernadette Benda

“It was sunny. The day, the afternoon, even cloudless in the evening darkness. But in my ribcage I had a storm inside a bottle, sealed for so long that by the end of the night when I opened it, only a few raindrops came out.”

Somewhere Strike One

by Stephanie Buck

“On the fourth day, the doctor asks my husband to name what’s on his dinner tray.”

Our Sweet, Quiet Boys

by Megan Doney

“This week it is a man in Uniontown, Ohio, near where I grew up.”

The Menorah in the Window

by Hope Houston

“By the time I was eight years old, I had been condemned to Hell twice.”

Carmen’s Family

by Kai Moku-Jones

“I love Carmen. She was one of those nine-year-olds who reminded me of my adolescent girlfriends Stevie-Beth-Mary when I, too, was nine. The only difference between her and us was that, being more perceptive, Carmen knew what she would be missing should her time on Earth expire prematurely.”

Life in Light Years—Chasing the Great American Eclipse

by H.L.M. Lee

““I am an eclipse chaser.” I say this as if introducing myself at a twelve-step program.”

Summer Time

by Amy Searle

“Odd—how I continued going on about my desire for the heat of summer, for the thick of it (the stifling air and cindered body skin) all the while knowing that the heat was not what I craved, with embarrassing childlike desperation, in summer.”

The Incomplete List of What I Lost

by Sara Streeter

“Puzzle pieces. Patience for small talk at parties. My phone for the 800th time.”

I Look, I Speak

by Lucy Trujillo

“It is curious how little I remember from childhood, yet I remember one day in my third-grade art class.”