by Brian O’Hare

He’d woken on the too-short couch, legs stiff and bent beneath him. Above, the curtainless window exploded in white light, the winter sun flooding the small living room.

by Mark Sadler

It is surely no surprise the rebels chose the town of Dahizz, close to the western border, to stage their counterattack. The wadi Hijarhar points, like a crooked rifle barrel, down the length of the country.

by Zephaniah Sole

At 7:28 a.m., Jacob and Elna, hand in hand, entered the Starbucks directly across the street from Jacob’s condominium. Jacob wore his athletic-fit, single-breasted, navy blue suit with a white dress shirt. Cutaway collar. No tie.

by Meredith Wadley

Before sunrise one summer morning in South Texas, a mockingbird flew to the topmost branch of a crepe myrtle to begin its predawn trill. The myrtle grew in the yard of a farmhouse surrounded by a citrus grove.