“Adelaide” is an entry from The End of The World Book by Alistair McCartney, an encyclopedia of stories and memories and obsessions, forthcoming from The University of Wisconsin Press, March 08. A ADELAIDE For a long time now, Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, has been known as the city of churches. The ratio … Read more
Leave Off Doves Midway through the fall semester, an unnoticeable girl in Professor Woody’s Advanced Fiction workshop dyed her hair an unnatural shade of dark, changed her name to Tasmina, and turned in a story filled with made-up words. She handed out the story to her classmates to be work shopped the following week, and … Read more
Wasteland The city of Los Angeles is burning. The air is hot, dry, and charged with static electricity and fear. The Santa Ana winds are blowing in from hell, punishing the palm trees and swaying tall buildings. The wind carries with it sand from the eastern deserts and the charred remains of dried brush, dead … Read more
Children’s Church Before there was a building, church took place in the high school band room. People sat on pastel cement chairs, looking down at the band director’s podium. The floor was speckled, and I would look toward the floor while Pastor took the names of all the people who had cancer, people in the … Read more
Painters Have you ever watched squirrels at work or at play or at whatever it is they do during business hours? You know how they can be entertaining and frightening all at the same time? They leap about with one another, but then one comes charging at you, and you freeze into some awful compression … Read more
