Magic shenanigans are the order of the day in this new fantasy novel set in an alternative-universe Cairo
A MASTER OF DJINN: WHAT’S ALTERNATE IN ALTERNATE HISTORY?
fiction
INTERVIEW: “A DISCERNING EYE” AUTHOR CAROL ORANGE
"One pitfall in the art world is to romanticize paintings and artists. I believe I resisted that."
FICTION EXCERPT: A GALLERY, A HEIST, AND A DISCERNING EYE
The lead headline jumped out: $200M Gardner Museum Art Theft 2 Men Posing as Police Tie Up Night Guards
BOSSTOWN: NEW NOVEL NAVIGATES BIG DIG ERA BOSTON
"I grew up in communes in Allston in the ’70s. There used to be this great big penny poker game at the Spanish House commune; it was in the former Spanish consulate on Commonwealth Avenue."
FICTION EXCERPT: ‘THE AUTOGRAPH OF STEVE INDUSTRY’
My grandmother is high, reading science fiction in the kitchen while a choir of drunk relatives do Johnny Most Christmas carols.
PICK YOUR BLEMISHES: AN INTERVIEW WITH OTTESSA MOSHFEGH
In a sea of perplexing novels and short stories that seek to highlight the good in bad characters, Ottessa Moshfegh‘s work rises above it all with murky water dripping from its edges, forgoing the good altogether to ...
‘POP’ GOES THE GENRE
A conversation with Berklee English prof Mark Polanzak about his new sorta memoir
As journalists at DigBoston, it’s hard for us to worship genre-benders who take liberties in weaving fiction into nonfiction and memoir. But while phonies like Ben Mezrich patch ...
EXCERPT: ‘POP!’ BY MARK POLANZAK
But I wrote this funny story about my dad’s death. It goes on for many more pages, being funny and super distanced from the grief.
INDEPENDENT FILM FESIVAL BOSTON REPORT: ON FOUR FICTION FILMS
A spotlight on fiction films of the IFFB
MASS FICTION: THE ASTEROID THEORY
In different ways, I lost my two best friends, but I gained something too. On that rainy, fall night, I glimpsed the way life could be, when everything breaks just right.
NEW FICTION: NEXT YEAR’S SHOW
The opening band sounds like Dick Dale on downers. Dual vocalists split the front of the stage. The hipster, stage-left, plays rhythm, mic on distortion.
NEW FICTION: EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN
Her commitment had been total until, during one of four weekly after-class sessions, she lost concentration when her coach’s interest diverted visibly to a younger girl stretching on a nearby mat.
SUMMER FICTION: THERE WILL ALWAYS BE BEAUTIFUL WOMEN
That night I decided my hunch had been right all summer that nothing else in my life had ever mattered. I was encapsulated in darkness.
FICTION: MY HEART IS A CHEAP FUCK
He was just getting seriously into weight training and his body was bulging in unexpected places we’d discover together.
NEW LOCAL FICTION: THE WEBSITE
YOUR FIRST MESSAGE is from some kid who only just gained the right to drink in bars this past November, and what he writes to you is I like older women.
DIG + SLUSH PILE FICTION SUBMISSION PORTAL
Submit your fiction to DigBoston + Slush Pile Magazine here.
FICTION: SAINT VALENTINA
YOU WERE BORN the day the IRA kidnapped Shergar. The radio reported it, and the t.v. did, too. The midwife suspected that the Russians had taken him.
FICTION: PINK LIPSTICK WITH GLOSS (FOURTH HEAD FROM THE LEFT)
Her hair was up in a ponytail and I took the opportunity to savor every taut muscle and tendon in her neck. This was next to the last day. I had thought I would use the week to have a few one-night stands and just have a good time.
SPECIAL HOLIDAY FICTION: TWO SMALL DOGS
ONE DECEMBER SUNDAY, just two weeks before Christmas, Rose and Mark came home to discover Gretl alone in the yard, surrounded by trails of sticky black hair and a tangle of grayish, gnawed up bones. Hans’s rat-like skull, the eyes picked clean, poked out from under a deck chair on the far side of ...
ODD FALL FICTION: THE CAROLINES
“Tough life out here, huh, boy?” She stroked his ears, his thoughts moving up through her hands. He was old, and it hurt to swallow. He had run away from a man who came home drunk some nights and kicked him. It made her throat tighten and her eyes wet. “That’s bad. I’m really sorry.” Some people fed him, but mostly he ate garbage, and he hurt every night when it got cold. He hurt all the time. He wanted peace, and he looked right into her face to say it.
