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Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 160 (January 2020)


Neil Clarke - 2020
    This was published as a Clarkesworld audiobook podcast in 2020.

Dip in the Pool


Roald Dahl - 2012
    Here, a man acts rashly and life-threateningly to ensure he wins a prize . . .Dip in the Pool is taken from the short story collection Someone Like You, which includes seventeen other devious and shocking stories, featuring the wife who serves a dish that baffles the police; a curious machine that reveals the horrifying truth about plants; the man waiting to be bitten by the venomous snake asleep on his stomach; and others.'The absolute master of the twist in the tale.' (Observer )This story is also available as a Penguin digital audio download read by Adrian Scarborough.Roald Dahl, the brilliant and worldwide acclaimed author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many more classics for children, also wrote scores of short stories for adults. These delightfully disturbing tales have often been filmed and were most recently the inspiration for the West End play, Roald Dahl's Twisted Tales by Jeremy Dyson. Roald Dahl's stories continue to make readers shiver today.

No Great Magic


Fritz Leiber - 1963
    The story involves two warring factions that battle by using time travel to change the outcome of events throughout history. No Great Magic was originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine's December 1963 issue. To bring the dead to lifeIs no great magic.Few are wholly dead: Blow on a dead man's embersAnd a live flame will start. -GravesFritz Reuter Leiber, Jr was an American fantasy, horror and science fiction writer. He was an expert chess player and a champion fencer. He received the Gandalf award at the World Science Fiction Convention in 1975 and the Grand Master Award at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1981.

Don't Drink the Water: The Year of Short Stories – August


Jeffrey Archer - 2018
    Released as one of a limited number of digital shorts released to celebrate the publication of Jeffrey Archer’s magnificent seventh short-story collection, Tell Tale. Taken from Cat O’ Nine Tales, Jeffrey Archer's fifth collection of short stories, Don’t Drink the Water is a captivating, witty and ingenious short read.Richard Barnsley is in St Petersburg to close a pipeline deal that will make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. Having spent years bribing the Energy Minister, Anatol Chenkov, the deal should go through smoothly. However, the president of Russia wants preside over the signing ceremony which means he needs to finalise the contract in a matter of weeks. But then Richard’s home life unravels when he finds a letter from a divorce lawyer intended for his wife. He suspects she is waiting for the deal to be signed before divorcing him, which leads Richard to take drastic action . . .

Etcetera: The Unpublished Poems of E.E. Cummings


E.E. Cummings - 1983
    Many of the poems are from his early years and all convey his freshness and youthful spirit, exhibiting his celebration of love and delight in common natural phenomena. Etcetera was first published by Liveright in 1983. This newly reissued edition is published in a uniform format with Is 5, Tulips Chimneys, ViVa, XAIPE, and No Thanks.

A Migrating Bird: A Short Story from the collection, Reader, I Married Him


Elif Shafak - 2016
    A short story by Elif Shafak from the collection Reader, I Married Him: Stories inspired by Jane Eyre.In ‘A Migrating Bird’, a young Turkish woman is drawn to a Dutch student on foreign exchange at her university.Edited by Tracy Chevalier, the full collection, Reader, I Married Him, brings together some of the finest and most creative voices in fiction today, to celebrate and salute the strength and lasting relevance of Charlotte Brontë’s game-changing novel and its beloved narrator.

Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead


Joe Hill - 2007
    This short story was originally published in Joe Hill's collection 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS.

Diamonds from Tequila


Walter Jon Williams - 2017
    Now he's starring in a big-budget action thriller that offers him the chance to become a box-office titan.Except the action and the thrills aren't just in the movie. Dangerous and destabilizing new technology is floating around behind the scenes. Police and cartel lords lurk in the shadows. An assassin is on the loose, and has already claimed his first victim.Sean could be next in the killer's sights, unless he can find out what the bad guys want, who's hiding it, and how many people he's going to have to betray in order to save his life--- and more importantly, his celebrity!

Dare I Weep, Dare I Mourn?


John le Carré - 1967
    Then he receives a call from his estranged sister in East Germany, informing him of their father’s untimely death. His father’s last wish? To be buried in Lübeck. To carry out his father’s request, Dieter will have to drive the corpse back across the border, with risks he discovers only when he arrives in the East. A haunting story from the world’s most famous spy writer, John le Carré.Dare I Weep, Dare I Mourn? was originally published in The Saturday Evening Post, January 28, 1967.Cover design by Adil Dara.

Negative Reinforcement


Chuck Palahniuk - 1990
    Available for free on The Cult.

Down to a Sunless Sea


Neil Gaiman - 2013
    Series: Water storiesDown to a Sunless Sea by Neil GaimanA rainy encounter in London on the banks of the Thames unlocks a tale of loss and grief in this exclusive story from Neil Gaiman, Down to a Sunless Sea.http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/...

The War of the Wall


Toni Cade Bambara - 1980
    The narrator describes the frustration that the people of the community have with the artist, who is not only painting over one of their favorite places to play, relax in the shade, and hold on to the memories of a lost friend, but the artist is unwilling to accept the hospitality from anyone who tries to offer her food, or find out what she is up to. When the narrator and Lou go out into the country to meet up with their grandmother, they learn about graffiti from dad and grandmother who are watching the news, and they decide that they are going to deface the painting when they return back to Taliaferro Street. When they return, however, they find that the mural was a beautiful picture that not only reminded the community of all of the things that they loved about the wall, but celebrated the vibrant cultural richness of their community.

FOUND Magazine #1


Davy Rothbart
    Check out a list of teacher-stalking license plates (maybe yours is in there). Look to found resumes for inspiration in your own job hunt. Learn all about Hawaii from one woman's vacation log. Read the inaugural FOUND interview with Lynda Barry. And of course, the find that started it all: Page Me Later. All that, plus loads of found photos, notes, drawings, and more!

Bullets and Fire


Joe R. Lansdale - 2011
    I had taken a pretty good step into the shadows tonight." It's payback time, in this short story by Joe R. Lansdale.

The Lost Phoebe


Theodore Dreiser - 1918
    Short story from the story collection FREE AND OTHER STORIES.