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Author and Story Archives156 Adelphi
Dakar had a nice scam going with the rent at one of the hippest addresses in Brooklyn. It's when he tried to push it one step too far that things got really interesting. Print Aliens Among Us
Marie was ill with breast cancer and her family thought their Sahara adventure would be their final vacation together. Only a different secret might change everything. Print Annual Report
Sure, nastiness sells. But put too much of it into the world and it might come back around to infect you most of all. Read the full story. Print Ausbund
When two Amish teenagers in love leave their families behind for the modern world, nothing about their leap forward is as easy as it might have seemed. Read the full story. Print Authors
Baby Boris
Someday, Richard assumed, he would finish his doctorate, get a teaching position at a third-rate college, and live a small unthreatening life. And then he moved in with Sasha. Read the full story. Print Bambi's Mother
Go west, young woman! There's never a good reason to leave New York. But what happens when a bizarre family dynamic, a bachelor's in art history and a rocking manicure make you take a job at a museum in Tucson. Isn't there a bad Eagles song about that? Read the full story. Print Barn
Two sisters. Two marriages. But in a small town, your past never really goes away. Sometimes, it even comes and lives out in the barn. Read the full story. Print Be Loved
On the day of her father's funeral, 28-year-old Clarissa Iverton discovers that he wasn't her biological father after all. Her mother disappeared 14 years ago, and now Clarissa is alone and adrift. The one person she feels she can trust, her fiance, Pankaj, has revealed the life-changing secret. Her birth certificate is a clue to finding her real father, and it leads her from New York to Helsinki then north of the Arctic Circle, to Lapland. Read the full story. Print Birdy Joe
The scam seemed perfect -- when someone dropped their car off at the garage for the afternoon, they'd grab his address from the registration and use his own keys to get inside and steal him blind. One unforeseen problem: it's Nov. 22, 1963 and President Kennedy has just been shot. Read the full story. Print Bleak College Days
Think a short story can change the entire arc of your college life? Print Broken Cloud Buckets
The plan was simple. Grab an expensive item off the shelf at Target and return it for cash. The security guard was a kid. The manager was off. It was almost closing time. His girl would be waiting in the parking lot. What could possibly go wrong? Read the full story. Print Campus Crusade
Natalie Beacham was the hottest girl on campus, and a little too perfect. She was beautiful, smart, and very Catholic. Marc Bernstein was a lazy, inexperienced freshman. Could he get his act together -- and wipe the drool from his chin -- quickly enough to get the girl? And say he got her. Then what? Read the full story. Print Cardiology
Imagine you lived in a town where everyone shared the same heart, and lived reliant on a vast system of valves and pipes. If you were a teenager in love, with big dreams, you might wish for a way out -- for a heart of your own. Print Closer, Still
Cobalt
It's the eve of the 21st century, and the dot-com boom is still something to believe in. Tech companies will transform the world! While handing out stock options! To us all! Roger is planning a Y2K party for his firm, but his single-mindedness might cost him his relationship. And then, there are the monkeys. Read the full story. Print Concord
Cameron Salters was tired of settling down. He wanted to be a musician, not an investment banker. And was it so wrong to wish for a girlfriend who could be as moved by classical music as she was by the crummy multiplex romantic comedy? Say he met someone in the city, at Christmas time? Could they inspire each other to become who they wanted to be? Read the full story. Print Confused Aliens
Join the universe's most bumbling but oddly endearing space travelers on their mission to Belvetron IV. And hope that they don't destroy the planet and their own spacecraft along the way. Read the full story. Print Constantinople
Max wanted to write and never imagined he'd land on Wall Street. Sarah, however, was ticketed for finance from the crib. When she lost her job amidst an even bigger change, their relationship was bound to change. But how? Read the full story. Print Description of the Person, When Last Seen
It was just another summer day. A month remained before college. There was work at the Conoco, sleeping in, swimming with her friends, driving lessons with her little sister, lunch at the DQ. But then what happened? Read the full story. Print Do-Gooders
Hal had a hard time saying no. It got him in trouble at work -- he was supposed to deliver meals to the elderly, not sit with them all afternoon and do their yardwork, to boot. It contributed to his strange home life. And one afternoon, it all came together. Read the full story. Print Don't Sweat the Petty
The best man. The bride's sister. But at this Midwestern wedding, nothing else that you might imagine happens. Read the full story. Print Election Day
Would it be Carter or Ford? Daniel and his family were rooting for the Democrat. Of course, Daniel also hoped he might get to kiss Cleo. A first kiss? A Democrat in the White House? Was it all too much to hope for? Print Eulogy
Alvin had a complicated relationship with his father when he was alive. When dad had a sudden heart attack, however, it freed his emotions and he was able to write again. But what would this mean for his relationship with his own family? Read the full story. Print Family Inheritance
What was myth and what was reality in the unlikely courtship of Samina's parents depended on who was doing the telling, and when. It wasn't until she fell in love herself that she really started to understand why. Print Freizeit
As a travelling food and beverage manager, Ben received six-month assignments in exotic locales, like Japan, where he and his girlfriend Ruthie were staying now. But while Ruthie dreamed of their future, the past held potholes -- would happiness be as elusive as the healing onsens? Read the full story. Print Getting Rid of the Clown
Tim wowed Deanna when they first met. He was so graceful on stage and he knew New York better than anyone she'd ever met. But who would have thought the trouble with this mime would start when he opened his mouth. Print Ghost Story
Alexander didn't really want to travel to New Mexico for his father's fifth wedding. But he certainly didn't think he'd learn something about his own young marriage along the way. Print Groundhog Day
A young man haunted by the death of his wife spies an attractive window-dresser one day while eating lunch, and it sparks vivid and painful recollections of his marriage and other past loves. Read the full story. Print Heaven Is a Place Where Nothing Ever Happens
Before you get to heaven, you need to fly there. Welcome aboard. Print Here Lies
Henry Tuhoe is a 28-year-old middle manager. His wife loves the suburbs and the occult. His job is about to be exported to Bangalore. His secretary is an Internet porn star online. Welcome to his Monday. Read the full story. Print Home
There's nothing like a trip back home for an old friend's wedding -- and staying with your parents -- to make you reassess where you are in your own life. Print How To Perfect A Cliche
There would be great books, just not written by her. There would be great meals, only some of them eaten by her. And there would be great sex, even if the friendship would soon decay. Later, she would remember it all quite differently. Print How We Move
Sometimes when we move, it exposes the fault lines. Read the full story. Print How to Win Her Love, Once You Have Found Her, The Girl You Desire
A guide to wooing the opposite sex by Maynard Gogarty, a companion piece to the novel "Maynard & Jennica." Print Humphrey DempseyI Got You
It was the summer after third grade, and it should have been the summer of the Smurfs and Split Enz, not the season after Jack's father commited suicide. Print I See You Everywhere
When Clem reawakens after a month spent comatose after a terrible sailing accident, nothing is as she remembers. Where's her boyfriend? And who's the guy with the flowers? Print If Wishes Were Porsches
Jonathan and Juan aspired to one of the agented professions. Until then, they had to cope with the indignities New York heaps upon its upwardly striving: writing for alternative weeklies, finding something to do at a low-level publishing job all day, hoping for hot water in apartments they pay way too much for every month. Read the full story. Print In the House of Desire, Honey, Marble and Dreams
Omar knew today would be a day of firsts for his Iranian family, newly relocated to Los Angeles. He was eager to begin life in America, to have his three kids begin school and his wife start a new job at a local boutique. But when he saw his wife head to work dressed like something from American TV, it turned out the old world still held some sway. Print Infested
You might think that the natural enemy of the exterminator is the pest they are sent out to control. You would be wrong. Print Land Between Two Brush Shaped Hills
They played with Keith because his parents let them do whatever they wanted -- even if Keith preferred to just read and ignore their teasing. They were 12 years old and there were intricate, unspoken rules of friendship. But then Keith started hanging out with an older friend, and one night, the entire dynamic shifted. Read the full story. Print Late Night 1989
High school sucks. The college counselors only want to talk to the AP kids, and they're jerks. Mom and Dad are getting divorced, which is fine. You didn't understand how she stayed married to that guy anyway. The only thing that feels real are the voices on the radio. Read the full story. Print Lives of the Great Baristas
The Manitou Coffee spirit seemed silly to Toby when he first applied for a job there. He'd blown his college fund on pizza and beer and just needed someplace to work where he wouldn't be slinging fries. Toby never imagined they'd also teach him pride. Read the full story. Print Lives of the Superhero
After a mysterious accident leaves him paralyzed, sixteen-year-old Joseph finds himself living with his father in Minneapolis and working hot summer days in a bakery. What happened to the life he used to live? Although they approach the mystery in different ways, two people in Joseph's new life -- seventeen-year-old Zap, who also works in the bakery, and Enzo, a fierce and funny nine-year-old girl, both want to find out. An excerpt from the new novel "Falling Boy." Read the full story. Print Liz & Lauren
Liz worked hard to be an understanding and wise parent, without crossing the line to become the easily manipulated type more interested in being their daughter's friend than mother. But it was an everyday struggle, especially as Lauren worked through teenage trauma. Read the full story. Print Louisiana Purchase
A 20-Minute story about one important reason not to let your girlfriend walk too far ahead of you in New Orleans. Print Luxury
A couple and her best friend. A ski trip. An offer. An acceptance. And then? Read the full story. Print Medea in the Garden
The men had passed out after a grand dinner party. And the conversation among the women suddenly took a turn. Might it be the pistachios? Print My Life With Idi Amin
She was proud to be Idi Amin's mistress, to love the most powerful and feared man in Africa. But she also wanted to bear his children, and no deal with the despot ended with one's humanity intact. Read the full story. Print Oil
As mother and daughter spend a day at the hospital, they're reminded of all the things we don't forget -- and all the things we keep secret, even from those we are closest to. Print Period of Grace
Darrell's ex-girlfriend Lisa always wanted him to be more spontaneous. Turns out that did not mean show up at her new, muscular boyfriend's house just before Christmas and insist that Lisa come back home with him. Read the full story. Print Phoenix Gardens
Nobody ever thinks that will be them selling the Big Issue out in the cold. Until it is. Print Roommates
A younger brother's once worshipful relationship with his older brother turns tense when his hero stops playing video games, starts going out with girls, and demands his own room. When their mildly retarded cousin disappears in a snowstorm, the entire family needs to pull together. But can things ever really be the same? Read the full story. Print Root Beer
A conversation about arranged marriage takes an unexpected turn as two exes head off on a weekend road trip. Print Selling the General
Lizzie Grubman has nothing on Dolly. When the hottest party in town ends up with its A-list guests being scalded with the hottest oil in town, the publicist ends up in prison and practically bankrupt. So how can she resist a job softening the image of one of the world's worst dictators? Read the full story. Print Slicing Sauteed Spinach
Guys often said they liked talking with Ruzena; she thought this was because she listened without saying much of her own. But when she started telling her lover lies, she discovered some truths about herself. Print Soleil
There are lessons you learn from your parents. And then there are the ones you learn from your mother's dangerously wild college roommate. Read the full story. Print Spirit Line
Portland's a small city. And it only seems smaller when you're trying to deal with your wife leaving you for another woman. Print Squink
Kasper was the coolest kid in school. Jude was his loyal sidekick, thrilled to bask in Kasper's glow. Except high school is never that simple. Read the full story. Print Still Life Amongst Partial Outlines
Read the full story. Print Stuck
Delmar hadn't been out of jail very long and still faced the indignities of peeing in a cup for his parole officer. His girl might be moving away with her new husband, a real treat. So what else to do than head for the state fair? Read the full story. Print Sujata
Sujata was only 15 and already a wife when the Japanese invaded in 1942. But what the entire town wanted to know was: What happened to her? Print Suzy Swims With Sharks
Choose your poison: Be an unpopular teenager in an exclusive town who lives at the cheap hotel your mom works at, or be an unpopular teenager whose mom marries a sad dreamer. Hey, how about one, and then the other. Sorry, Suzy. Read the full story. Print Tehran Calling
Shaken by the demise of a bad relationship, Sarah flies to Iran to visit her friend, Parvin, who left America to fight for women's rights in Tehran. On the terrifying streets, and alone with her friend, Sarah comes face to face with secrets, suspicions and fears. Print Tell It Straight
The story of everyone's life should be a novel. Right? Print Tender Til The Day I Die
Joe worked at the used bookstore and dreamed about the cute girl who came in to sell her old books. He wanted to ask her to come away with him. He never imagined her answer might be yes. Print That Time When All the Sad People Came and Stayed at My House
Ambition slips away slowly. Your band never quite takes off, your wife leaves, your favorite brother is killed in Iraq. And suddenly you find you haven't left the house in 14 months. Read the full story. Print The Agronomist
Henry had a large inheritance but the worst luck. He wanted to be liked but ended up take advantage of. He fell for his fourth cousin (not really a relation!). Everyone in Brooklyn found out about the faces he made while having sex. His worst misfortune, however, was still to come. Print The Amicable Divorce
It was Tony's young daughter's first birthday party since the divorce. And going back home -- the indignity of ringing his own doorbell, of his ex-wife looking so damn good -- unleashes a torrent of frustration. Read the full story. Print The Artists Colony
Lola arrived at Woodlands mansion, a famous retreat for artists, to get her own writing done. But she quickly found her imagination drifting to ghost stories -- and tales about what her fellow writers might be up to after hours. Read the full story. Print The Black Veil
Two previously unpublished excerpts from Rick Moody's acclaimed memoir. Print The Creek
It was Amy's senior year of high school, and she was ready to move on from her friends, the boys, her parents. But while her hometown bored her, there was something interesting and mysterious about her neighbor, an artist who lost his wife in a tragic accident. Read the full story. Print The Driver
Chick's mom didn't understand why she hung around with these boys, why she drove them around town, why she let them call her Chick. But for Chick, the whiff of danger, the thrill of maybe getting out of town, the stirrings of love -- it was all impossible to resist. Print The Everything Hater
As a high school sophomore, Horace found his father dead in the garage, a suicide. Now it's up to his sister to keep Horace from the same fate. She'd have an easier job if Horace could find inspiration somewhere, anywhere. Print The Gatsons
The new neighbors seemed strange from the beginning. Just why did ther cat wear glasses? And they would only get more difficult -- until two boys took matters into their own hands. A sandbox, after all, needs to be defended. Print The Healthy Heart
When you're 15 and your dad goes in for bypass surgery, and your mom dies suddenly of cancer, it is only natural that feelings of life, death and love become all the more intense. Read the full story. Print The Hero Shot
With his Hollywood dreams on the rocks and his tequila straight, a would-be actor returns home to mom's place in Riverside for a stiff shot of rehab and reality. Read the full story. Print The House Began to Pitch
Ada moved from Rhode Island to Florida to begin again, but there was no way to escape what she'd left behind. Print The Hurricane
It's Friday night on Bourbon Street. Grab a drink -- the parade of desperate dreams is about to begin. Are those the first notes of "Satisfaction"? Print The Lady with the Pet Tribble
Space might be the final frontier. But when the "Keptin" left the "Endeavour" for a pleasure getaway and fell for a woman, a very different man returned to his command. Read the full story. Print The Last Movie
Two actresses on the cusp of 40 both covet fame. Their choice of set boyfriends on a thriller flick just might determine their futures. Print The Looting of Washington City
The capital is ablaze and the British are on the march. But war always provides risk and rewards to the unsavory -- and sometimes men stop thinking about King, empire and country and start thinking about themselves. Read the full story. Print The Oblivion Arms
Murray and Phoebe Adipose cast their nine-year-old son as a lead in their Broadway hit "Burton!," based, yes, on Robert Burton's "The Anatomy of Melancholy." He repaid them by creating his own play, "Melancholy Baby," and without another word to his parents, departing for prep school in New England. When his bickering parents finally set off to find him -- and to find inspiration for their next play -- they hit a roadblock. Their son is nowhere to be found. Print The Pearl of the Orient
A fairy tale of great kingdoms, epic battles, wise men and royal families. Read the full story. Print The Ultimate Jackpot
It was Christmas time in Atlantic City, and Drew needed a great weekend on the tables if he was going to pay off his debts and maybe save a broken leg or two. And just when his luck seemed to be headed in the wrong direction, she sat down. Read the full story. Print The Witches
The Witches were a dangerous place to take a boat, an even riskier place to swim, and not the best destination for a post-prom sail. Read the full story. Print The World in Flames
She had been warned not to behave this way in Bangkok. Not to pull the Lonely Planet guide out at the train station. Certainly not to go home with a strange man. But even when she disregarded those warnings, she never would have believed it was possible to fall into a situation as dangerous as this. Read the full story. Print There Will Be No Fourth Rome
This Is Not A Story About How Much I Love You
His best friend's novel was so moving that it blinded Brent's wife. So why couldn't Brent's love story make his wife fall for him again? Read the full story. Print To The Staff
The newspaper business is in crisis. The Sentinel's internal personnel memos might help explain why. Read the full story. Print Trainchasers
The three of them were a single unit when trainchasing from platform to platform. Until suddenly one of them disappeared. Print Travelling Through The Dark
When Archie's young wife died in a car accident, the only place he could find solace was at funerals. Read the full story. Print Trophies For All
Professors of fried chicken. Studies of Waffle House grape jelly. Yes, you might be at a low-residency graduate program of Southern Culture Studies. Print Voice Lessons
Jessica received voice lessons as a birthday gift from her son. According to his ad, the instructor studied at Julliard. Turns out that wasn't the only credential he lacked. Print Volunteers Are Shining Stars
Frances was able to paper over her unhappiness by helping watch the children at New Day House. Then the new volunteer showed up. Read the full story. Print What Does Mack Know About Anything?
Mack, a depressive New Yorker staring down 30, moves to Turkey after a great date with a woman visiting America from Istanbul. But his obsessive and depressive instincts return when he and Deniz overhear an argument at a restaurant, and disagree about what it means. Read the full story. Print What Happens When The Mipods Leave Their Milieu
Shane Mipod never imagined his memoir, a graphic novel called "Amen," would land him a visiting professorship at a university. But if he had, he also wouldn't have imagined that he'd be completely misunderstood by those who claimed to like his work the most. Read the full story. Print What My Father Looked Like
It was 1974 and everyone was sure about something -- Watergate, Vietnam, that Hank should follow his parents and grandparents to Harvard. But if Hank's parents could get divorced, Hank, too, could make decisions for himself. Print What To Expect
Claude was filled with regrets over the choices he made and how he raised his son after his wife died young. But when his son's wife became pregnant with his first grandchild, would he make all the same mistakes again? Read the full story. Print Who Do You Love?
Janet didn't take Adam seriously in college -- he was an artist, and she was headed to the corporate world -- and it broke his heart. Years later, she was divorced and working as a consultant, and Adam was playing Williamsburg dive bars and working a job he didn't care about. Guess whose company hired Janet to suggest "efficiencies"? Read the full story. Print Witnessing
Cecilia was riddled with cancer, didn't have much longer to live, and knew her husband was having an affair with Rose. What Rose couldn't understand was why Cecilia asked her to the house one afternoon before Christmas. Read the full story. Print Year of the Pig
Some kids spend all their time thinking about how to become popular. Jeremy Schindeldraft opted out of that game altogether. But when he's chosen for a coveted role as one of the Beatles in a school play, a classmate sees an opportunity to help Jeremy -- and himself -- rise in social status. Read the full story. Print nice teacher
The substitute teacher was nearby when the first child disappeared. She was at the school when the second one went missing. So it's only natural that the town finds her suspicious, right? Print |
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