'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.

The Man in the Parallel Universe

“The man in the parallel universe loves me. He’s tall and grey-haired and handsome still and looks just like Murtagh, but he’s not like him at all. He makes different decisions and chooses different things. And he doesn’t have Murtagh’s dilated eyes.”

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The October 2016 edition of Long Story, Short Journal is by award winning Irish writer Dolores Walshe. 'The Man in the Parallel Universe' is a portrait of a wife of a Vietnam veteran, who is soon to be a widow, but grieving a man she lost long ago. This tale is not only an exploration of grief, but of survival, and the moments of compassion that sustain us. READ 'THE MAN IN THE PARALLEL UNIVERSE'.

The Dead Soldier's Sister

“The prospect of entering this shrine had thrilled David for days. The soldier had died two years before in Lebanon, in March of 1994, and David wondered if the walls and the furniture had absorbed the grief and changed somehow, melted or sagged. ”

January 2016's edition examines the deteriorating effect that a state of perpetual war has on an individual. Set in Israel, 'The Dead Soldier's Sister' follows a young student tasked with making a memorial movie about an alumnus of his high school who was killed in combat, and ends up on a psychological path reminiscent of Heart of Darkness. Author Yaron Kaver's work offers complexity where pundits offer platitudes. READ 'THE DEAD SOLDIER'S SISTER'.

Tiny Dancer by Lisa Lang

Photo © Alan McCord

"From her window she watched the street. There were people in good coats – with no pilling, no unflattering bulk – walking with clear purpose, cyclists gliding by. It was late afternoon, night was falling, and the alien, blue-rinsed light settled on her like a kind of despair. She had a sense of being adrift on a vast, indifferent ocean. Whether she ate her dinner or not, went to sleep or stayed awake all night, or even stopped existing, who was to know?" 

Long Story, Short Journal's June 2015 edition is 'Tiny Dancer' : an examination of the solitude required for artistry, detailed in a portrait of a young dancer who is living away from home for the first time. Author Lisa Lang is the recipient of The Australian/Vogel Literary Award for her début novel Utopian Man.  CLICK HERE TO READ 'TINY DANCER'. 

Limbos by Stuart Snelson

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Photo © Jenni Adamitis

"Contemplating the amassed seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months of irretrievable time wasted in this way, he wondered how they might better be served. He imagined time’s off-cuts, almost insignificant in themselves, pieced together, a patchwork of time passed uneventfully. The awkward lulls between events, every finger tapping, foot pacing, clock watching moment stitched together: an assemblage of salvaged time."

Long Story, Short Journal's May 2015 edition is 'Limbos' : a tale of fathers, daughters, tattoos, and time. Stuart Snelson's tightly woven, poetic prose makes for enjoyable reading, heightening very familiar scenarios of anxieties and loss to experiences of transcendent beauty. CLICK HERE TO READ 'LIMBOS'.

The Alexandra Role

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Dear Ms. Neumann, I have already drafted this letter many times. I think, when I write it now, that I am no longer writing to you but to myself, or Alexandra. If I were a religious or a romantic man I might propose God, but you have usurped his claim to omniscience, and He could never forgive me better than you.

February's edition of Long Story, Short Journal is Sydney Weinberg's 'The Alexandra Role' with a photo by Jillian Lukiwski. 'The Alexandra Role' takes Barthes's death of the author for a walk around Nabokovian territory, in a narrative which is both witty and haunting. Romance has well and truly passed in this tale where the feminine has gone missing, and a replacement is being recruited.  READ 'THE ALEXANDRA ROLE'.

Lake House

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Photo © Kristen Johansen

Smoke inhalation, electrocution by live lines, roof collapse. Burning. Any of those deaths might have seemed more normal, or at least appropriately courageous. If he’d rushed straight into hell with a pike pole and a booster line, no one would have batted an eye. But Gus died in bed. And that didn’t sit well with some people.

American writer Jason Kapcala is the author of the July edition of Long Story, Short Journal. 'Lake House' explores the question of how a person constructs their own legacy. Readers are immersed in the crucible of risk and relationships, questioning exactly how much 'fire' one can cope with while maintaining human connections. Photo provided by Kristen Johansen. READ 'LAKE HOUSE'.

A Good Funeral

Luke’s father lies in a hospital bed in a private room. Luke stands at the foot of the bed, holding a bunch of oriental lilies he bought at Cork airport. Their scent is muted in the antiseptic hospital air. His brother Terence and Terence’s wife Una sit at the old man’s bedside in a silence broken by the click of the morphine pump, then a clatter of crockery and muffled voices from the corridor outside. The old man seems dead already, until suddenly his blue eyes flicker open. ‘If you’ve come to get something out of me, forget it,’ he manages to say.

'A Good Funeral' tells the story of a bittersweet homecoming for Luke, an Irishman who left his small town at a young age to live in London. When he returns, he takes stock of how much, and how little, has changed--and learns the unknown influence he had on another young man who lived in the same town. A new offering from Hennessy Award winner Madeleine D'Arcy, with all of her characteristic humour, warmth and emotional wisdom. CLICK HERE TO READ 'A GOOD FUNERAL'.    

Resurrection

Photo © Peter Neske

"It was the morning of the last day of February when the man at the other end of the phone told Miriam her husband was dead. 'There’s no comfortable way for me to put this or for you to hear it,' he said. 'Your husband’s body was found yesterday afternoon. No matter how I say it, it doesn’t make it any easier for you. I’m sorry to be the one.'"

'Resurrection' is a story by John MacKenna, who the Guardian has declared "a consummately skilled author". This is a wintry story examining the roles of innocence and experience when questions of faith test a family who has suddenly been subjected to a deep loss. CLICK HERE TO READ 'RESURRECTION'.

The Underground

Photo © David Griffin

‘We don’t really know. We haven’t had time yet to think it through properly.’ That’s what Grace said. JJ and herself had just come back into the room. Half an hour earlier they’d snaked off somewhere else in the Pope’s house for a ride. What I’d asked was ‘what the hell are you two doing here seeing as you’ve both been dead for years’.  

The Underground--November's story, like Halloween which has just passed, marks a liminal space between the living and the dead. The darkest of satire, Dave Lordan's story takes us through the struggle of a homeless father to make a life for himself and his daughter on the streets of Rome. Think Jonathan Swift meets Christopher Marlowe.

Misbegotten

​Photo © Julia Van Middlesworth

"Floydean might be a problem once she got a sniff of the money. Not that Flo told anyone about the will, yet she knew somehow the family would telegraph scraps of truths and untruths across telephone lines and behind knitting needles, over dinner plates of chicken bones and cold mashed ​​​​potatoes." 

We are proud to announce that our September 2012, and inaugural, story is by Seán Ó Faoláin Prize winner Julia Van Middlesworth. 'Misbegotten' is a dark and psychologically apt tale of family fracturing and estrangement, packed with chilling imagery​. CLICK HERE TO READ 'MISBEGOTTEN'.