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.”

By: Tony Leone

Model building was considered nerdy, but I didn’t care — and I still don’t care.

By: Karl Taro Greenfeld

He became the world’s foremost expert in opium antiquities.

By: Jason Gilbert

I was no longer purchasing the Hand; the Hand had been entrusted to me.