The last thing my sister Elspeth tells me is what she and Terric had done did not, technically, qualify, and so probably she would be fine. When places like this say “virgin,” it’s really more along the lines of, like, how young they are. It’s supposed to be only virgins who can face dragons. Maybe you’ve…
Self-Portrait as Twice-Exorcised Child Should’ve known the demon wouldn’t leave so easy. Perched on the dresser it wears shadow, won’t let me see it directly, just claws and fangs, pale tongue like a serpent reaching for the floor. It tries to confuse me. “They said of Agatho that for three years he kept a stone…
The cornfield’s dirt is black and its stalks are luminous. The broken heavens above are shaped of dark fog; there are places where a purple void studded with white stars show through. I am grateful that my eyes can interpret light from such distances. I undulate in the dirt, waiting for my mother- in-law, feeling the…
Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House, the graphic novel The Low, Low Woods, and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, the…
You’ve often wondered why pulling feels so good. You think about it when you lie in bed, fingers twirling and scraping against your scalp, finding purchase on a single hair, yanking and feeling the follicle release.Trichotillomania, also known as hair-pulling disorder, is a mental disorder characterized by a long-term urge that results in the pulling out…
Part I: Hors D’oeuvres A month ago, my papi and I moved to the panhandle, a place that lacks the constant stream of Spanish that Miami is known for. Here, everyone has blond or light brown hair and light eyes. Here, people say, “y’all,” and one out of five gives you odd looks when you…
You are here because you are supposed to be. Every year.Black hand to brown thigh. Wide jellied curling wand set and ready against you. Noting your age, 23, she says, So, you’ve never had sex before?Push.Hiss-Hurt-Holler.Good, Click-Crack-Crank. Wait until you’re married. Stretch. Stab. Sting. Just breathe, it’ll be over soon, the nurse coos, but if you breathe, you…
Breath & Shadow is a quarterly journal of disability culture and literature, unique in being the sole cross-disability literature and culture magazine written and edited entirely by people with disabilities. Each issue examines the human experience of living with disability through fiction, essays, interviews, drama, and other writing. Breath & Shadow believes that personhood in the land of…
Welcome, dear reader, to our newest F(r)iction feature: In World Interview. Today, NYT bestselling author, Martha Wells, is joined by two of her favorite characters to discuss the topic of Bodies. Take it away, Martha . . . I’m Martha Wells, the author of the science fiction book series The Murderbot Diaries. The main character, Murderbot, is a…
The lights are dimmed in the sports bar that my friends and I sit in. We’re at my typical booth—to the right of the door, in the far corner, where I can look out at patrons and remain undetected. I love this table, and I love the solitude. It is separated from other tables and gives…
They do put the hand back together. It takes all night. We start in the plastic waiting room chairs and as it grows later, we sprawl on the carpet, sneak sips of Spotted Cow, and try to stay awake. Mel offers the receptionist a beer, which sends her into a very vowel-forward “Oh no I…