Public Republic

Whitney Groves Photo: aturkus “Things will be different when Tequila’s baby gets here.” For the last eight months, Amber had reminded herself of this fact whenever she was bored or worried or upset. She soothed herself by itemizing the baby’s parts as she imagined them: big blue eyes, specks of fingernails, first gummy smile, the […]

Elayne Clift Photo: Tony the Misfit (taking a break) Although my mother and father went directly to Philadelphia and Toronto, respectively, when they arrived at Ellis Island at the beginning of the 20th century, I have always imagined them living for a time on Hester Street, that teaming gateway to a new country that would […]

Joan Donaldson Photo: RonAlmog From the foam I pulled myself from Lake Michigan and peeled away my selkie skin. Waves tugged at my lengthening ankles. My new toes dug into the wet sand, weathered bits of quartz and feldspar. The last rays of the angled sun mingled silver and apricot across the ripples, as I […]

Roger Conner Jr. Photo: banoootah_qtr James and Anita lay on the bed, flat on their back with not a stitch of clothes on. This was first time they had done this in years, maybe since college. It was a cool night for July so the air conditioner was off and a soft breeze moved ever […]

R. L. Burns The elevator opened on the twelfth floor and Rose hurried out of it, glad to escape its confines as well as its emptiness. Elevators made her sad now – especially hotel elevators. She still couldn’t believe that he was not coming.  She had made this reservation some time ago – ha! It seemed like […]

R. L. Burns Photo: Flowery *L*u*z*a* She felt him before she saw him.  Even with the wind howling around the corner of the building, her hair in her eyes, the hem of her black velvet skirt flapping against her calves, she felt him.  She had no idea from which direction he would come, but instinctively […]

An interview with the swedish writer Jonas Hassen Khemiri by Desislava Velichkova You were in Bulgaria just a year ago. Tell me about Sofia. Tell me your own opinion about the city! Unfortunately, I was in Sofia for too short a time to get to know it. Hopefully we will become friends next time. What […]

R.L.Burns Photo: nattu There are many things I wish I didn’t remember at all. Being raped at sixteen. A stepfather who beat the hell out of my mother, my sister and me. The hatred I felt towards him. Taking a gun to kill him and nearly killing myself instead. Rejection. The disappointment of every romantic relationship I have ever had. I went from […]

Dimiter Anguelov Photo: Anyaka For centuries in succession, this ferryman, lost in the crossing of the river, keeps trying to carry over my soul. It is not immortality that attracts him in that useless journey. His suffering kills me little by little. Exhausted, I shout at him in vain: “Wretched fellow, don’t you see that […]

Dimiter Angeulov Photo: stephcarter “On my way across the Parede City Park, I noticed a woman who had bent down too much, much more than amateur photography requires when shooting a goose. Her temporizing dragged on for so long that I lost patience and said: “Out of this will come … nothing will come out […]

By Ellie Ivanova Ponti Photo: Geoff604 No, this is not related to Julia Child, whose culinary mystique I seem to have missed, being a transplant from a different culture on American soil. It’s about books on cooking in general, the writing of/on cooking and on the pleasure of food. Well, the concept of food is […]

By Ellie Ivanova Ponti Stanley Fish’s column in the New York Times is probably the most prominent place where the world meets academia. After all, the world hardly reads The Chronicle of Higher Education and it’s sad these issues are otherwise largely ignored, beyond the annual college admission campaign. Getting into college seems to be […]

Susan Christerson Brown The inspiration for When the Bough Breaks fell at our feet when an enormous branch broke away from a nearby royal paulownia tree and crashed to the ground. This shock of a gift came to us during our group’s writing retreat at Hopscotch House in Kentucky during the summer of 2007. We […]

Ivailo Dimanov Photo: peasap Even if you live well, one day you’re sure to run out of money. I took my TV in my arms and went straight to the pawn-shop across. “No way,” – the man was adamant. – “The warehouse is full of home appliances. People bring along plasma TV-s, home video systems […]

Nancy Ross-Flanigan Photo: YXO The road we took to get to A’oloau was the same road we took to get to Tafuna or Leone or any of the other villages on the island’s west end. If we headed east from Utulei instead of west, that very same road would take us through Fagatogo and Pago […]

Sunny Montgomery Photo: Caitlinator Do you remember that Christmas when Grandma Kalisz sent those pink faux fur matching coats that came down to our ankles and came with matching muffs? We never quite understood those muffs; they reminded us of our stuffed toys and so we were more inclined to give them names and put […]

Whitney Groves Photo: erix! As she rode down the highway at sixty miles an hour, Darla had no trouble believing that she was riding on air. Every time she opened her eyes to check, she was a little surprised to find herself in the back seat of Donny’s Delta 88. Mostly, she kept her eyes […]

Ivanka Mogilska Photo: Eryn_Vorn Kara I don’t want to do anything that might distance me from her. I don’t want us to get any closer… at least, not in the usual way: The first few meetings over coffee. Then our life stories. Mine. Hers. In telling them, we already have our history. We start to […]

Elayne Clift Photo: flavinsky Some years ago I read a book about Gypsies. It was called Bury Me Standing by Isabel Fonseca and it changed forever the way I think about the Roma people. It’s amazing how knowing something about a too-easily-stereotyped group can alter your view of its members. Such was the case when […]

Katerina Stoykova-Klemer’s interview with writer Nancy Jensen Nancy Jensen is a graduate of the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College. Her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals, including Northwest Review, Other Voices, Under the Sun, ACM: Another Chicago Magazine, and The Louisville Review. She is presently at work on a […]