By: Susannah Breslin

“ALL AMERICAN OFFICIAL NECKING TEAM,” the pin read. It was hard to reconcile the words with my father.

By: Sean Howe

It’s difficult work, wooing Donna.

By: Rachel Axler

Q: I wonder what his favorite band is. A: YES

By: Nicholson Baker

Everything had a temperature in those days.

By: Chris Adrian

My brother and I could not agree on how to worship the mouse.

By: Matt Brown

Like the cloudberries of Sweden or truffles, Crumpters couldn’t be mass-produced.

By: Kurt Andersen

“But don’t you ever do what I once caught Jimmy doing, OK?”

By: Doug Dorst

On frigid and moonless winter nights, effigies of St. Vralkomir may come to life and begin dancing…

By: Dean Haspiel

“We rolled around and smashed into something so hard it cracked.”

By: Ben Greenman

“Enormous in its diminutive size, menacing in its cheer.”

By: Adrienne Crew

When I look at the fish scaler, I see my family’s frugality and ingenuity.

By: Alissa Walker

Selections were made with a satisfying double-thwang of a letter key and number key pressed in quick succession.

By: Erin M. Routson

The paper wallet still makes me laugh. And cry.

By: Chelsey Johnson

The horses developed complex social networks, animosities and affections.

By: Dave Boerger

I became a “soldier in God’s army.”