Storyglossia Issue 21 Is Complete

If you haven't been reading along as each story has been released, the full Issue 21 is now available featuring stories by: Gretchen McCullough, Kay Sexton, JSun Howard, Amelia Gray, Dan Capriotti, Sung J. Woo, Terry White, Paula Bomer, Clifford Garstang, Emily M. Z. Carlyle, Joel Van Noord, Anthony Neil Smith, Laurie Seidler, and Josh Capps.

Want to read all the introductions to the stories on one page? Just click the link after the label.

Issue 22 will start in a week or so, with a new story every 2-3 days.

A Ghost of Friend

And here's the final story for STORYGLOSSIA Issue 21 Josh Capps' "Ghost." Plenty of edge in this one, but what impressed me most was the handling of the dialogue, which is worth a close study after your read it first for pleasure.

Josh Capps's work has appeared in The Mississippi Review, The Barcelona Review, Carve Magazine, and Conversely. His stories "Connecting" and "Alarm" appeared in STORYGLOSSIA Issues 4 and 6. His anti-war essay, "Pa Don's Troops", was recently reprinted for The Barcelona Review's 10th anniversary issue. He sends well-wishes to those in Minnesota.

The Atlas of Our Bodies

Recently added to STORYGLOSSIA Issue 21 is Laurie Seidler's "The Atlas of Our Bodies." This story begins with a car sliding off the road into a telephone pole and then five miles miles down the road our narrator/driver sees the girl on the side of the road:

She was standing on the shoulder next to a Mercedes with California plates. The car had a flat, but she wasn't trying to fix it; there was no sign that she'd looked for the jack or even taken the instruction manual out of the glove box. When my headlight washed over her, she was leaning on the front door, looking into the blue-black distance, a wheeled carry-on beside her . . .

And you just know nothing will be the same again.

Laurie Seidler lives in San Jose, CA, with her husband and son. She is a graduate of Yale University and is in the process of completing an MFA at California College of the Arts. Her fiction has appeared in literary journals including In Posse Review, Hobart, and The Shore Magazine. She is the founding editor of VerbSap.

Louder Gospel

Now up in STORYGLOSSIA Issue 21 are the wonderfully conflicted characters—youth ministers on a lock-in event—in Anthony Neil Smith's "Louder Gospel."

Anthony Neil Smith is the author of Psychosomatic and The Drummer. His work has appeared in Connecticut Review, Flway, Bellevue Literary Review, Exquisite Corpse, Murdaland, and many others. He's also an associate editor with Mississippi Review, and former editor of the late ezine Plots with Guns. Born and raised in Mississippi, he's currently exiled way up North, teaching creative writing at Southwest Minnesota State University. And if you're really interested in pictures of him playing golf badly, check out http://anthonyneilsmith.typepad.com.

Not Beach Blanket Bingo

Now up in STORYGLOSSIA Issue 21 is Joel Van Noord's "Beach and Ocean," which shows you how to get a story moving at the start by dropping readers right into the action:

First came the gasp and then the scream. He knew the cause for the scream. But the gasp was from a dangerous place he had no history of. Then there was the sick slurp and the gasping release and collapse. The splatters made no noise . . .

Joel Van Noord is conservative. He lives in California and is the fall '07 weekly writer at Thieves Jargon.

Release

Okay STORYGLOSSIA readers, I forgot to ask for your safe words, so you are on your own with this latest addition to Issue 21: Emily M. Z. Carlyle's "Fish, Chips, and Whips." But don't get too distracted by the fun and games or the emotional terrain will have you uttering the word, too.

Emily M. Z. Carlyle is from Europe and currently resides in Maryland. She is an avid reader and student of history and languages. Her fiction has appeared in Ghoti Magazine, Doorknobs & Bodypaint, Reflection's Edge, Thirteen and Dead Men (and Women) Walking, an anthology from Bards & Sages.

Shootout at the Pet Corral

Now up in STORYGLOSSIA Issue 21 is "The Pet Palace" by Clifford Garstang. Dug the progression in this one, which also went somewhere unexpected, as it shifts from pregnant Sandy's second thoughts—

Ash leans to kiss her, but she edges away. Is it him, or is it his limey cologne that turns her stomach? And has he somehow suddenly shrunk, his uniform baggy at the shoulders, bunched at the waist? He seemed so hot when they first hooked up, him a rookie cop, her a bored twelfth-grader desperate to tell her mother where she could put her nagging. Pull down that skirt! For God's sake put on a bra! Now the smooth, jutting chin she remembers has disappeared, the hard stomach gone soft. Is that even possible in such a short time? She thought his eyes were piercing, a steel blue, but now they just look weak and gray. Pools of water instead of sheets of ice. Was he even the same man?

—to a tight action sequence during a pet story robbery, before ending with a hint of slapstick that is achieved via a neat shift in tone.

Clifford Garstang left the practice of international law to write fiction. He holds an MA in English from Indiana University and an MFA in Fiction from Queens University of Charlotte. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Shenandoah, The Ledge, Baltimore Review, and North Dakota Quarterly, and has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His story "Nanking Mansion" won the 2007 GSU Review Fiction Contest and he has been a fellow of the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. He lives near Staunton, Virginia.

No Absence of Vision

Just added to STORYGLOSSIA Issue 21 is "Reading to the Blind Girl" by Paula Bomer. I especially liked the way this story starts off heading in one direction and then diverges, goes elsewhere, which was refreshing and engaging. I don't want to give too much away, but the character arc for Maggie is also unexpected, particularly as the story becomes focused on the blind girl Caroline. This story is also notable for its treatment of the blind girl: a most politically incorrect portrait that is also refreshing. Her flaws are shown: needy, angry, bitter; what we might expect, but often don't see portrayed as writers (or maybe it's the editors?) fear causing offense. All good setup for the satisfying and emotionally complex ending.

Paula Bomer grew up in South Bend, Indiana and lives in New York. She received her Masters in Creative Writing from City College New York, where she studied with Frederic Tuten, Mark Mirsky and Linsey Abrams. Her fiction has appeared in Open City, Fiction, The Mississippi Review, Opium, Word Riot, nth position, Nerve and in some anthologies as well. "Reading to the Blind Girl" is dedicated to Misia Landau.

Language Fest

Up now in STORYGLOSSIA Issue 21 is "Desideratum of the Adjunct Professor" by Terry White. Love the attention to language in this one, as well as the dense and conflicted characterizations.

Terry White lives in Northeast Ohio and teaches at a community college. He has been writing fiction, mostly noir, for the last five years.

Don't Talk in Your Sleep

Next up in STORYGLOSSIA Issue 21 is "Love, Anyway" by Sung J. Woo. A story with classic lines that builds effortlessly from scene to scene to a bittersweet ending the story has been aiming towards without seeming to. This story hooked me right off as Tony, wondering if he loves his wife, reveals his all too human failings:

She sat down and ate, not saying a word, her usual way of dealing with a bothersome subject. He knew he had to give her time, but he resented it and wished she'd hurry the hell up. Why did she have to ruin a perfectly good breakfast like this? It was a selfish act, a childish act, and he wished he were elsewhere—in a deserted diner of a dusty town, being served by a waitress who'd been there since the day it opened, a tough-looking broad in a pink and white uniform.

Such glimpses into Tony's inner world are intertwined with the action as he pursues an affair with his co-worker Debbie. The complexities of the interiority create an empathetic portrait even as Tony eases out onto the slippery slope towards infidelity. How far will he slide?

Sung J. Woo is a writer living in New Jersey. Some of his short stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, East of the Web, and In Posse Review. He has recently completed his first novel.

Sybil's Dream

The latest addition to STORYGLOSSIA Issue 21 is "Sybil's Dream" by Dan Capriotti. This is Danny's first published story, so props to him! And all the more so because he made it past my bias against stories that begin with a dream. A sense of danger and the intriguing ambiguity kept me in this one until a startling moment completely won me over. I'm not going to ruin the moment for you; I'm sure you'll know which one it is when you get there. I also liked the way Capriotti used external events as a subtext for the story. This is a great example of allowing readers to connect the dots and build their own interpretation from the clues provided. The story is stronger for not showing us what the mother was watching on TV.

Danny Capriotti lives, works and writes in New Jersey. His current obsessions are the subjects of memory, love found and lost, and the lives of people who've been forgotten by time. He's currently at work on a number of fiction and non-fiction pieces addressing these issues. "Sybil's Dream" is his first published story. It is dedicated to Mary.

Beauty is Truth

I know it's summer and breezy beach reads are in . . . but this is STORYGLOSSIA and I'm going to continue to challenge you. So here is Amelia Gray's beautiful and fascinating story "The Movement," which is the latest movement in Issue 21. I love to see writers taking chances with form and I'm thrilled to have a story such as this in the journal.

Amelia Gray grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and received her MFA from Texas State University. Her stories have appeared in McSweeney's, Spork, Swivel, Bound Off, and Monkeybicycle, and she was recently named a finalist for the John C. Gardner Prize for the Two-Minute Play. Her work is forthcoming in Caketrain. Amelia works in Austin, Texas, as a freelance writer.

Mouth Fulla Words

Just up in STORYGLOSSIA Issue 21 is JSun Howard's powerful language fest "Mouth Fulla Words."

JSun Howard is originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee and is a 24 year old aspiring dance artist/writer in Chicago, Illinois. For three years he studied at Columbia College in their dance department at The Dance Center where his choreography appeared multiple times. This fall, JSun is proud to be joining Americorps to help improve literacy in one of Chicago's Public Schools. He is planning to return to college to attain a degree in dance and creative writing after concluding this rewarding purusal. JSun's poetry can be seen in the literary web journals Farmhouse, Lines and Stars, and Void.

Funeral Games by Kay Sexton

After a delay caused by the power adapter on my laptop catching fire, here, finally is the next story up in STORYGLOSSIA Issue 21: Kay Sexton's "Funeral Games," which has one of the most transcendent endings of any story I've read in a long, long time.

Storyglossia Issue 21 Starts Now

The second installment of summer reading STORYGLOSSIA style starts now with Issue 21. As with Issue 20, a new story will be released every 2-3 days until the full issue is available. First up in Issue 21 is Gretchen McCullough's frequently hilarious tale of obsession "Taken Hostage by the Ugly Duck."

Gretchen McCullough was raised in Harlingen, Texas. After graduating from Brown University in 1984, she taught in Egypt, Turkey and Japan. She earned her MFA from the University of Alabama and was awarded a Fulbright Lectureship to Syria 1997-99. Stories and essays have appeared in: The Alaska Quarterly Review, The Texas Review, Archipelago, Exquisite Corpse, Iris, The Barcelona Review, Big Bridge and StorySouth. Her story "The Empty Flat Upstairs" appeared in STORYGLOSSIA Issue 12. Currently, she teaches at the American University in Cairo and is working on a collection of stories set in Cairo.