Salisbury Beach by Sean Conway

Our father, Charles Hartley II, hanged himself in the attic in the spring of 1977. I was five years old. My brother Kelly was eleven. May 25th: the same day that Star Wars opened, though I didn’t make that connection until later.

'Salisbury Beach' is the May 2017 offering from Long Story, Short Journal, by author Sean Conway. Visit a seaside town on the decline, where a young boy's life is spinning wildly on carnival's tilt-a-whirl, from his first tastes of both love and bereavement. READ 'SALISBURY BEACH.'

'Entrusted' by Fiona Whyte

Something had caught hold of her at the grave, had reached inside her and awoken a tremendous urge to go home once more. Now nothing would do to set it aright other than to head out at once for Ballinlough before it was too late. Mary Frances accompanied her, muttering all the while that Annie wouldn’t appreciate unexpected visitors.

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The March 2017 edition of Long Story, Short Journal is 'Entrusted' by Irish writer Fiona Whyte. Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, we have a tale of two countries -- of the Irish who travelled to America for work, adventure or escape -- and the inevitable impact such a distance would have on a family. READ 'ENTRUSTED' BY FIONA WHYTE.

Geographies of the Heart by Caitlin Hamilton Summie

The night our grandfather died was a night without stars, the snow falling in endless repeat, first veiling the moon, the constellations, then the sharp edges of buildings – our whole world. Toward the end, when my grandfather seemed only to be lingering of his own will, I stood outside the main entrance of the hospital, looking for headlights; stunned by the deep and unsettling quiet of St Paul under snow and then by the long keening wail of a siren inching toward Emergency, the neon lights there obscured by snow and ice and hope.

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January 2017's wintry offering is Caitlin Hamilton Summie's beautifully composed 'Geographies of the Heart'. Readers will find themselves within snowstorms, observing not only grief and loss, but also a thawing of what was once frozen, with the promise of new growth. READ 'GEOGRAPHIES OF THE HEART'. Story selected by guest editor Madeleine D'Arcy.

Snapshots by Eileen Keane

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Photo © Linda Raymond

"I feel disengaged from my life, as if it is a series of stills from a film, or moments captured in images that I offer to the earth. I spread them out there and examine them and rearrange them as if by doing so I might somehow find answers. The older ones seem faded and when I look at them it’s as if my head fills with noise, but when I focus on the ones that link to this place, the din fades and the mellifluous sound of the clarinet takes its place."

Long Story, Short Journal's July 2015 edition is a unique tale from Hennessy-award winning writer Eileen Keane. 'Snapshots' examines tensions that affinity for one's 'home-place' can create in a relationship, while offering 'snapshot' portraits of the endurance and strength that can be drawn from love.  CLICK HERE TO READ 'Snapshots'.

In My Father's House by Jane Hammons

 It is summer and in the shallow valley bordering the Lincoln National Forest where my father lives, the light fades slowly. His house is made from fake adobe bricks. They were not molded by native hands from the ancient clay of the earth; they were not fired individually in round earthen ovens. He bought them at Capitan Lumber and Hardware, but still they are the dusty color of real adobe. Smooth and irregular, their corners are rounded like the edges of the earth. Pap, my grandfather, helped him build this house so that he could move out of the trailer parked behind the Win-Place-Show Laundromat near Ruidoso Downs Racetrack. This is my first visit to the new house, the only home my father has owned since he and my mother divorced more than 20 years ago.

'In My Father's House' by Californian writer Jane Hammons is the April 2015 edition of Long Story, Short Journal. The story takes readers on a Greyhound Bus to the desert home of a family who lives beyond gypsum sands, bat-filled caverns and nuclear weapon testing grounds. Despite radiation, separation, and illness, this is a tale of love and thriving. READ 'IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE'.