Reckon Review

Category: Fiction

  • American Girl Doll: Fiction by Mary Thorson

    “What American Girl Doll do you have?” She asks me, with her hands behind her back and her chest stuck out. Her hair is washed and perfect. Her dress is expensive even though it’s only for play. I want that dress. I want to cut that hair. I have the one with no money and…

  • Judgment Call

    Fiction by Darrell Z. Grizzle “So old Homer Jackson’s boy Amos is a queer, huh?” I looked over at the man in the passenger seat of my car. He was wiping sweat from his brow with a handkerchief, even though I was running the AC at full blast. “No,” I said, “Amos said he has…

  • Exercises in Adversity: Translating Trauma Without Sentimentality

    By Barlow Adams I’d like to share a creative nonfiction exercise with you. It’s nothing fancy. It might even come across as simplistic if you’re a master of the form. Regardless, I use it time and again when I cannot produce under any other conditions. It rarely fails. It may seem counterintuitive, but you cannot…

  • My Julie

    Fiction by Abby Henry Evan’s girlfriend Julie moved into our house in the middle of September. Her parents had kicked her out for being a big fat sinner. That’s what Evan told me anyway. Sometimes she would wake up at the crack of dawn to make me eggs with the runny insides and two pieces…

  • The Fractured Mirror: Writing Out of the Dark Valley

    By Edward Karshner I write because I like stories. I like reading old stories and finding new meaning in them. In my day job as a folklorist, I study how storytelling influences behavior. The fancy term for this is the study of “cognitive scripts,” how stories become the knowledge we use to understand and navigate…

  • Norbert Pearlroth Might Have Been a Lawyer

    By Tony Woodlief Two days before he blisters Michael’s legs with a cigarette lighter, Ricky drives them all to Jupiter to see the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum. Believe It or Not comics are Ricky’s chief reading material. While other men discuss newspaper headlines, Ricky recites oddities documented by Mr. Robert Ripley. “They went…

  • For Ethan

    Fiction by Grace Buckner I’m only telling you this because it’s important. After I’m gone, there’re some things I need folks to understand, things they don’t understand right now. I’m standing in the kitchen watching this happen and it’s all these stories that shouldn’t be all mixed up together, but I love my son and…

  • Mr. William

    Fiction by Ali Pensky Mr. William is coming over tonight. I’m making spaghetti, spicy meatballs, and garlic bread. I have a bottle of red wine, but I always mess up opening the bottle. I’m sure Mr. William won’t mind. Mr. William says the hardwood floors are one of the most expensive things in the gallery.…

  • Purebred Hustle

    Fiction by Evan Morgan Williams They arrested Benito Luna in the principal’s office Friday afternoon. Arrested him for the murder of Jontiel Robinson the week before, the corner of Yamhill and 199th, the apartments beneath the tall firs. To be clear, there would be no flowers left on the sidewalk for Jontiel Robinson—such a punk,…

  • The Psychic’s Apprentice

    Fiction by Esmé Kaplan-Kinsey The boy needs a job. It’s unfortunate, really. Really, what he’d like to do is sit on a park bench and watch the leaves change from green to ghost. But this foolishness is out of the question, so the boy gets on his computer and loads Craigslist recent job postings. The…