New World Writing Quarterly

Egret

Frank took up golf when he and his wife moved to Lost Lakes Preserve three months ago. He hadn’t bro­ken nine­ty, and today looked like the day. He’d cov­ered the front nine in 44, chipped in for birdie on 11, and holed a thir­ty-foot­er for anoth­er birdie on 14. Standing now on the 16^th tee, he knew he had only to bogey his way in for an 89—a small thing, maybe, but he under­stood that the small suc­cess­es were the only ones left to him. Last year he’d final­ly been pro­mot­ed to pres­i­dent of his ad firm after being bypassed again and again for younger can­di­dates with new ideas, or old­er can­di­dates with more expe­ri­ence, or stronger lead­ers, or bet­ter con­sen­sus builders—always some­one else. Now he’d final­ly reached the top of his small region­al agency, and there was nowhere else to go unless he was will­ing to sidle his way into one of the nation­als, which would also mean a tem­po­rary step back­ward for the promise of some­thing bet­ter. At 58, he’d keep the sure thing, espe­cial­ly when the sure thing had giv­en him and Jeanne the means to build their dream house on one of the last remain­ing golf course lots at Lost Lakes.

The Night Witches

Months before the fire—the big one that cuts up through the homes in our hills like a plane through a flock of doves—I see Rochelle in the street. It’s a Sunday. She has her hand in some guy’s pock­et. Her hair is paler than I remem­ber it, and it hangs down around her face like she still cuts it her­self. She is tanned, bro­ken-in, like she’s been liv­ing out­doors all these years.

So Long

Ana grinned as she walked toward him, weav­ing her way through the heavy traf­fic of Canal Street. Michael smiled and pre­tend­ed to look some­thing up on his phone. It was late May but Manhattan felt like a desert that day; blind­ing sun­light and a dry, brit­tle kind of heat.

Porcelain

She, who nev­er asks for any­thing, point­ed to the dis­play case and said, “I want this.”  It was a porce­lain Christmas fig­urine, noth­ing short of a glazed mon­u­ment.  As a cen­ter­piece, it would over­take most of a din­ner table.  Santa Claus was sculpt­ed into a Mexican cow­boy, with spurred boots, som­brero, and a black mus­tache.  Mexican Santa sat high on a blan­ket sad­dle and held the reins of a red-nosed bur­ro, lift­ed onto its hind legs, tri­umphant­ly car­ry­ing them to the North Pole.  Like all Santas, his cheeks were rud­dy and his smile jovial.  Cargo hung off the burro’s flank, bulging with dolls and oth­er children’s toys.   My father bought it for my moth­er imme­di­ate­ly, because she had asked.

Future Mistakes

Raisa Kolbe cast a wor­ried stare through the glass par­ti­tion at the only swad­dled new­born not cry­ing.  Baby Boy Arturo’s eyes focused on the ceil­ing as if he were send­ing up his prayers before the inevitable hap­pened.  Raisa tapped on the glass in an attempt to rouse him but only suc­ceed­ed in gar­ner­ing the atten­tion of the nurse.

Raisa point­ed to the baby and mouthed, “Is he okay?”

A spe­cial issue edit­ed by James Whorton, the Summer 2015 num­ber begins now. Please stay tuned. We will be post­ing this issue between July and October 2015.

Let’s hear it for Dylan Smeak!  Maron Tate! Paige Clark! Three new and splen­did pieces added to this Endless Spring issue of NWW.

Up today we have three new sto­ries–Emily Eckart, Anna Hagen, and Karen Wunsch. More to come.

Curated/edited by Jared Hegwood, the Spring num­ber starts now, includ­ing work from Andy Plattner, Alex Higley, Erin Armstrong, Nellie Aberdeen, Paul Luikart, P.J.Underwood, and Tracie Dawson, among oth­ers. Please stayed tuned.

We’ve expand­ed our hold­ings for the win­ter issue, adding new work by Andrew Rhodes, Ellis Purdie, Fortunato –more

We have begun to assem­ble the Winter 2015 issue under the watch­ful eye of Associate Editor Elizabeth Wagner. We will be read­ing and adding work for this issue through March 2015, so please keep us in mind for your sub­mis­sions. Click –more

We’ve expand­ed the fall issue and will con­tin­ue adding mate­r­i­al through December 2014. The issue is select­ed and edit­ed by Pia Ehrhardt, author of Famous Fathers (MacAdam/Cage, 2007). Her work has also appeared in Narrative –more

We’ve added new things for the sum­mer issue. JoAnna Novak’s won­der­ful “Five Minutes with the Baby,” Zvezdana Rashkovich’s “How to Love a Man in Cairo,” and Richard Lange’s “Instinctive Drowning Response.”

A gallery of images by the French illus­tra­tor Chloe Poizat.

Click Summer 2014 or use the main menu. Note that we con­tin­ue to read new mate­r­i­al for the issue–fiction, poet­ry, non­fic­tion, any­thing else, what­ev­er you have, short –more

The Winter Issue fea­tures work by Bob Hicok, Gerald Fleming, Jennifer Pashley, Pia Ehrhardt, Jane Armstrong, Bobbie Ann Mason, Jeffrey Allen, Simeon Berry, Allan Rossi, and others.

The Fall 2013 issue of NWW is up with new work from Andy Plattner, Eric Pankey, Joe David Bellamy, Rose Hunter, Alfred Corn, Richard Mirabella. All that plus Quincy Lehr’s won­der­ful­ly abun­dant poem, “The Dark Lord of the Tiki Bar.”

–more

On February 16, 1965, the Sheriff of Dallas County, Alabama threw one of the most famous punch­es in American his­to­ry, on the steps of the cour­t­house in Selma. The man that Sheriff Jim Clark punched in the face, C.T. Vivian, was named yes­ter­day as a recip­i­ent of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.