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.'

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'.

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'.

Sheela-na-Gig by Susan Burke-Trehy

She settled into her seat near the back of the bus, grateful that her dishevelled appearance would discourage the other passengers from sitting close to her. She had, in the last few weeks taken to dressing in dungarees, fleeces and wellies. Added to this were a few well chosen gardening titles from the library and a straw basket so that she just about passed for an organic farmer-type, the kind that would not look out of place on a bus bound for West Cork. As she peered out of the grimy bus window, she allowed the last glimpses of Cork to slip out of sight, pushing away any feelings of regret or fear. All is as it should be, she whispered under her breath...

The March 2015 edition of Long Story, Short Journal leads readers into the darker heart of spring with emerging writer Susan Burke-Trehy's 'Sheela-na-Gig'; photo by Alan McCord. Rose Hawthorn is on the verge of a new life, returning to her childhood home to settle an old debt in a tale that merges a contemporary narrative of estrangement with an undercurrent of Irish mythology. CLICK HERE TO READ 'SHEELA-NA-GIG'. 

Pussy Bratchford is on the Verge of Becoming a Good Christian

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Photo © Elias Vella

Pussy Bratchford is on the verge of becoming a good Christian. Now that he has given up sex and ketamine, he gets his kicks bidding at auctions and leaving without paying. He makes plenty money on the drag circuit, where he calls his audience gee-bags, muff divers and swords swallowers. One time, when he hosted bingo, he asked the crowd had anyone got a line when he spotted an RTE children’s presenter in the audience and told her ‘not the kind of line you’re thinking of’. The one from the telly broke her hole laughing.

"Pussy Bratchford is on the Verge of Becoming a Good Christian" is an irreverent and tender portrait of a drag queen in Dublin. With the love and support of his grandmother, the young man is transported from a small rural town and mild life to an existence he makes entirely his own. We meet him just as he has the chance to return her support. At once cheeky and vulnerable, the March edition of Long Story, Short Journal is dedicated to drag queen and activist Panti Bliss. Story by Irish writer Jamie O'Connell; photo by Elias Vella. CLICK HERE TO READ "PUSSY BRATCHFORD IS ON THE VERGE OF BECOMING A GOOD CHRISTIAN."