Watch It All Burn by Casey Stegman I watch Frank’s house burn from the sidewalk across the street. Flames crawl out of every window on both floors, sending black smoke into the night’s sky. In the …

In A Goddamned Wheat Field by Casey Stegman You’re in a wheat field. The sun’s high noon. And that bastard’s bearing down on you with all it’s got. You’re running. But there’s this sharp pain in yo…

Come Hell or High Water by Stephen J. Golds The last time I met my father I was fifteen years old. He was twenty minutes late. Bought me a Happy Meal from the Drive-Thru. Said he’d do anything to t…

A Place To Be As Good As Any Other by Barlow Adams I am 26 years-old, 17 years younger than when my youngest son was born. He and I are playing tag at the playground in the place we went after the …

June Submission Call   – OBSESSION –  Time to go dig deep in brain recesses.   The things we can’t let go, the things that keep us awake at night, the things that make us…

Because the Baby by M. E. Proctor The cheap Christmas card  sits face-up on the dashboard. I’d rather see the stupid bird on a branch than the words written&…

Hell in a High-Rise Feature Editor: James Jenkins Welcome to Hellton towers. A fourteen story tower block long forgotten by the local authorities. Enjoy views of the surrounding crime infested esta…

A Punk Noir Interview with Kellie Scott-Reed “No expectations! If you write, do it because you MUST.” There are a lot of folks on the indie writing scene who are self-involved takers, but there are…

A Perfect Morning by Ron Earl Phillips I’m not a morning person. Mornings are usually met with porcelain prayers and retching regret. I drink too hard. Last night was no exception, draining the hou…

A Punk Noir Interview with Aubri Kaufman “We’re all just doing this because we love it, so we should be having fun.” Today’s Punk Noir interview is with talented poet, indie zine editor and a…

Bonded in Blood by Adam Hulse Duane lay on the dirt with a double barrel shotgun pointed at his chest while his revolver lay just out of reach. He rubbed his swollen cheek. “It didn’t need to come …

Last Vigil by M.E. Proctor Burying Simon took all the energy I have left. I should have joined him in the hole. It would have been the right way to…

The Other Side of Town by Russell Thayer The stranger held his hat in his hands. “There’s been a wreck out on Highway 87.” I didn’t think to invite him in, but I stood there wondering why they…

Ward B, Room 116 by Kim Mannix The nurse at the foot of Dana’s bed saw me hovering. ​“It’s ok. Come in.” ​My shoes squeaked, syncopating with the beep of the heart monitor. ​“Yo…

A Punk Noir Interview with Meagan Lucas “Behind every good writer is a great editor.” I can’t recollect who said that quote or where I first heard it, but it’s always stuck with me. Sometimes you c…

All Alone on Apple Road by Andrew Monge “C’mon, Ralph, let’s go for a drive.” Oh-boy-oh-boy-oh-boy!  Best Friend take me in Wind Machine.  He open Home Door, then Wind Machine D…

His Gilded Whispers by Mathew Gostelow Trousers rolled in shallows, Gemmel’s father taught him to sweep netfuls of silver minnows. Pick the shiniest, hook the chin, play them to draw bigger fish. N…

It Was Just, Like, A Loose Plan Anyway by Sumitra Singam Mr. Lim puts Halina with me in Chemistry Lab because he knows nothing about the social hierarchy in this school. She tosses h…

Quiet, Alone by Melissa Flores Anderson Before Martín put his wife in the ground the doctors gave him the cancer diagnosis. Didn’t tell Georgia. Didn’t tell the kids. He’d spent three years with he…

Sisyphus by Francois Bereaud Zeus & Hades – How fucking could you? Let that man – I won’t even say his name – off. You said eternity. Eternity means forever. To infinity and beyond. And yes, th…

Clean by Ted Flanagan Thanksgiving came in arctic and I’d been clean for twenty years. A shout to the wife, ruffled the kid’s hair, took the steps two at a time. A thin tendril of exhaust…

A Punk Noir Interview with S. Craig Zahler I can probably count the “big time” grit-lit writers who consistently blow me away and are still living on one hand. They’re few and far between these day…

Dulce et Decorum by Richie Narvaez Dennis figured hitting the highway divider was the right thing to do. On a stretch of road lined with crosses, flowers, pictures of drivers who’d upended their li…

Your Phone a Stethoscope by Chris L. Robinson She called and you let your cellphone ring. Four times. Five times. Six. You’d set it to vibrate once home from your crappy job and your wife couldn’t …

Night in the Middle by  Russell Thayer Waves of warm breath from forty women washed over Maggie as she lay on her cot, trying to sleep in the …

Lunch Meeting by Melissa Flores Anderson Charles walks in and says, “Is anyone heading to that thing at the student union?” He doesn’t look into my office or direct the question towa…

A Punk Noir Interview with Coy Hall 2020 saw a whole coterie of new magazines and talented writers burst onto the indie writing scene here on Twitter. Injecting fresh blood into the community. And …

Take It Easy by Michel Lee Garrett Kaplan savored each turn of the dial like a musician searching for the right note. “Close?” Saison fidgeted anxiously. “We need to dust.” “You and Buddy, alw…

As Penny held the gas pump, she felt a man approaching. She reached for her phone in her hoodie pocket, as if her friend was physically there; like a hand to grab. She froze, realizing Max was 604 …

Seconds by Craig Terlson “This Scandinavian buries aces, spins bottoms and seconds better than anyone I’ve ever met.” A friend of a non-friend, guy named Lloyd,&n…

Climb by Stephen J. Golds He’d read 300,000 people climbed the mountain every year.  Was one of the first things he’d done after arriving in the country all those years ago. He and a bunch of …

A Punk Noir Interview with Anthony Neil Smith December of 2019, I had just finished writing a novel about a hitman with Tuberculosis in 1940’s Los Angeles. The novel was called Glamour Girl Gone (A…

The Show Off by Joel Nedecky Gray stole glances at Hanna from across the room in Mr. Noble’s class. She had arrived mid-semester, gorgeous, into punk music, and smart. Funny, too. They’d talked at …

Editor: Stephen J. Golds — Betrayal — Time to really flex your writing muscles. Can you write a killer story about betrayal in under two hundred words? Yeah, that’s right. 200 words MAX. All genres…

Neon Sins by Jenny Lewis I sat on the bed in my faded boxers, cigarette between my fingers— the room, already stale with smoke. A vacancy sign flashed outside the window, humming with electricity a…

Betrayal by Edith Bow He spoke. Mouth moving without a sound. My ears ring and it’s getting louder, the way that trains take voices with them. Visceral. TV clatter static wretches through my …

Never Again by Jen Hartzell She watched them through the gauzy window curtain. Their silhouetted bodies melded together against the warm glow of the bedroom light, swaying back and forth, no doubt …

Cabbage Ain’t Always Sour by Craig Terlson Larry Vance was always stuck between a rock and a doughnut. That’s what his grandma said the third time she bailed him out. Today’s&nb…

Wide Awake by Victor De Anda “Hello? Who’s this?” “Hey sis, it’s Doug.” “Oh my god, you’re awake! I’ll be at the hospital after lunch.” “Do you have my cellphone? I can’t find it.” “Yeah, they gave…

The death of April Easton makes no sense. She was a jazz singer working the clubs. Maybe the recording contract she just signed would have been her breakthrough. It certainly wasn’t a motive for mu…

Opium by Barbara Byar She wore a black dress and Opium. Nothing else as she tottered along the edge of the balcony, empty bottle dangling from vodka-floppy fingers.  He sat in a silver…

About 10:45 Just Outside of Steelville by PJ McAvoy The gunshots nearly burst his eardrum. Reilly didn’t realize how loud they’d echo in the small convenience store. It was nothing l…

A World of Pain By Casey Stegman After passing the beat-to-hell mutt chained to the tree outside, I enter the kitchen-turned-meth lab through the back door. Immediately, Rottiger is on me. He grabs…

Home is Where the Heart is by Stephen J. Golds Harry knew something was strange when his wife and kids stopped coming to visit him at the hospital. When he wasn’t feeling so lightheaded he snuck aw…

Since March 2021, and in alphabetical order 7 layers if a threesome – Kristin Garth Blood in, blood out – Cody Sexton Blossom – Amy Grech Champagne moment blown to shit – Nathan Pettigrew Euphoria …

OUR LOVERS ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN GET CLOSE ENOUGH TO SLIP THE KNIFE IN by Eric Esquivel ​Carlos was under the impression that he and David were friends, even up to the point that the knife slid…

Shimmer by Offer Kuban ​She didn’t remember stepping through the door. She floated in the yawning darkness, the stars lost to the glare of the ship’s lights. An alarm blare…