
Recommended Reading
Recommended Reading is your ultimate source for the best in contemporary fiction, including short stories and novel excerpts from today’s most dynamic voices.
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The First Flight Out of the Cult of Celebrity
"You Have a Friend in 10A" by Maggie Shipstead, recommended by Stephanie Danler

How To Bring a Living Being Into a Dead House
"The Cat" by Tove Ditlevsen, translated and recommended by Michael Favala Goldman

The Chickens Will Inherit the Earth
"Ark" by Zoë Ballering, recommended by Electric Literature

The Commuter
A single piece of poetry, flash, graphic, or experimental narrative arriving every Monday morning.
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ISSUE No. 221
Is My Husband Having an Affair With Me?
May 23 - Scott Limbrick
Where’s Waldo of Eternal Damnation
"The Butt Song from Hell," musings on Bosch by Marci Rae Johnson

People Love a Story Where Someone Almost Dies
"Party Stories," flash fiction by Yasmina Din Madden

My Gender Won’t Fit in the Family Car
"KB’s Origin Story" and "Yebba’s Heartbreak," two poems by KB

POPULAR in RECOMMENDED READING & THE COMMUTER
Fiction
Is My Husband Having an Affair With Me?
May 23 - Scott Limbrick
The Commuter
Eight Tiny Stories, Translated From the Emoji
Nov 27 - James Hannaham and John W. Bateman
Lit Mags
The Knowers
Sep 11 - Helen Phillips
Lit Mags
Adopt a Cat for the Global Collapse
May 18 - Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
More Issues
The Garden of Pain Needs a Good Hard Freeze
"A Snowy Day" and "Burrs," two poems by Paula Bohince

I Believe the Man in the Attic Has a Gun
"The Old Man with No Name," from People from Bloomington by Budi Darma, translated and recommended by Tiffany Tsao

The Writing on the Uterus Wall
Two poems by Emily Franklin

Exit Strategies for Alaskan Wine Bars
"Valley of the Moon" from Nobody Gets Out Alive by Leigh Newman, recommended by Emily Nemens

This Is Daddy’s Last Check and I Deserve It
"The Winner Is," flash fiction by Elaine Crauder

She Sells Dreams and Delusions at the Sea Shore
"Fact of Body" from Heartbroke by Chelsea Bieker, recommended by Genevieve Hudson
