Interview from the podcast Armchair Apocrypha https://soundcloud.com/armchairapocrypha/the-new-sound Q. You’re originally from Fayetteville, Arkansas. How did you end up in Louisville? A. Whenever I was in Fayetteville, I was applying for graduate schools and I applied for graduate school here at the University of Louisville. And I got accepted in, got…

Most of the men who worked the Wall hated the coldness of the steel girders they had to perch upon at night, but for James it was a comfort. During the day the heat of the desert got so unbearable inside the barracks that he often felt like heaving, as…

The code I’d been writing blinked at me expectantly as I rubbed my eyes and yawned. I’d been awake much too long, but it was almost finished. …

Right before Derby last year, I was sitting at work when I got an urgent text message. A member of Mijente Louisville and another from Parents for Social Justice had received a plea from someone at Churchill Downs. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had approached her, and she was…

As I surveyed the town from the hill on its western side, I could see that the Smiling Man had already been through, had already constructed his machine in the town center. It was impossible how fast he moved from town to town, how quickly he constructed his machines. I…

The Creature from her Nightmares I don’t believe in ghosts, but my roommate, Chelsea, does. She wakes me up in the middle of the night sometimes to sit up with her because she hears footsteps in the hallway, or she sees a figure pass outside her window, seemingly floating three…

It is the rainy season in the northern hemisphere of Akriti, and the world is airy and easy. The sky is a dark blue much of the time, even at midday, which stretches the feeling of dawn into every hour. The days are long, a few hours longer than they…

My sister and I debated selling the bronze woman for months. After I lost my job, she brought it down from the shelf at the back of the hall closet. “We don’t need that yet,” I told her. “I’ve still got my savings.” …

After the fourteen hour drive out to the little cabin in the desert, I was haggard. The night was falling slowly, the bright blue of the day mixing with the dark of night out at the horizon. The sand lost its red hues and became yellow. …