The taxicab that picks me up from the hotel is a Mercedes, its air conditioning turned up full blast. The heat never bothered me growing up, but I’m more American now. The weather reminds me of the summer of 1987 when Philip and I brought the children to visit. God, we nearly died in the heat. […]
Fiction
Issue 92 is Live!
Hello PBQ Readers! We’d like to formally announce that the long-awaited Issue 92 is finally up and running. We are immensely proud of the talent that is in this issue and we hope that, upon reading it, you will be too. We’d like to thank all 36 contributors whose work made up this issue, and […]
PBQ Contributor Meg Johnson has second book out for pre-order
PBQ contributor Meg Johnson has a new book coming out, The Crimes of Clara Turlington. A Grand Finalist of the 2015 Vine Leaves Vignette Collection Award. Meg Johnson’s new book is “at once fierce and fragile.” We’re excited to get our hands on a copy. Check out more info here!
Barbara Nishimoto: Every Day She Shrank In Size
When I was nine a neighbor boy said something about my grandmother, an Issei who spoke only a word or two of English. When I think of it maybe the boy hadn’t meant to be rude, just curious. “Why does she look like that?” But he made a kind of face as though smelling something […]
Anthony Inverso: Open House
Back when I still had plans to marry, I thought of coupled life as an endless exercise in moving furniture. I pictured Alexis and I tumbling through the years replacing malfunctioning lamps, securing couches for safe travel, slicing through packing tape with pocket knives. Marriage was an opportunity for infinite remodeling. So when life canceled […]
Michael Zimmerman: Goodbye, Brother
The wind hissed through the cracks in the room Matt and I shared, and dogs filled our family’s nights with howls. We lived, back then, in a small apartment towards the far North end of Philadelphia, past Oak Lane and Kennisington, called Northeast Philly. It was 1995— the year Northeast made the news for having […]