In the village tucked against the rising slope, a gray jenny named Mara began each morning with the same dull ache in her bones and the same knot of dread in her chest. The sun had not yet touched the rooftops when her owner, Hadar, stomped down the ladder from the family’s upper room. His…

It was the kind of cold that even sensible people talk to themselves, so Mr. Edwin Lark found himself, while walking home on Christmas Eve, enjoying his own agreeable company. The year was nearly over, though one might not have guessed it from the fog, which lay about the streetlamps like an old shawl, or…

The Sargasso Sea had swallowed the horizon. No line separated water from sky anymore, only a churning expanse of black-green waves, reflecting the swollen bruise of a twilight sun. The last remnants of the old world floated here: shattered satellites, bleached bones, and the ruins of ships that once ferried humanity’s hope. Elias watched the…

For years, social media and I have been in a very committed, very unhealthy relationship. I showed up each day with my best effort, lighting, and angle, which still made me look like I was getting interrogated. Social media, on the other hand, mostly responded by patting me on the head and saying, “That’s nice,”…

The summer haze settled over the valley, thick as molasses. On the edge of town, Widow Clara’s barn leaned like a tired ol’ man, and her mule, Rusty, had kicked another hole in the wall. Clara, gray hair tied in a bun, stood with hands on her hips, glaring at the beast. “That mule’s stubborn…

I’ve learned over decades that some things are eternal, like taxes, sunsets, and the fact that you can’t fix stupid. You can, however, sit back with a cup of coffee and watch it implode spectacularly, like a slow-motion car crash. It was 7:03 a.m., the magic hour when the town wakes up groggy enough not…

Life has a funny way of turning itself into a classroom, even when you think you’ve already graduated. I learned that again this morning, sitting with a cup of coffee in hand and watching a short clip from Tootsie that popped up on that ticky-tacko thingy online. You know the one, Dustin Hoffman, dressed as…

No one ever meant to end up on Flaming Dingo Road. It wasn’t on any map, at least not the official ones. It was the kind of place that found you when you were lost, or when you were looking for something you shouldn’t be. The road began just past the dry hills outside Barrow’s…

They came for his words first. At 9:42 a.m., Mason Kornic’s inbox blinked with the red icon of death, Notice of Public Conduct Review. His most recent essay, “On the Nature of Honest Speech,” had gone viral overnight, and not in the celebratory way. A few readers had found his phrasing exclusionary. One line, just…

Just north of Hawthorne, Nevada, where the high desert rolls endlessly into sage and silence, lies Walker Lake, a gleaming eye of water that should not exist. Rising like a mirage in the heart of desolation, it catches the dying light of day and throws it back in shimmering defiance. Locals say the lake is…