University of San Francisco's Student-Run Literary Magazine
by Robert Stone Finally, or so they thought, they had come to the last room in the house. After months of living like squatters in this grand old place, he said. She said that was just an expression people used. Even so, there was a pile of empty boxes in the hall. Their belongings had… Continue reading Wallpaper
by Jos Burns The shop was carefully arranged, a dimly lit, fragile ecology in the damp evening air. Handwritten price tags dangled from thick cotton string, a casual denial of barcode technology. A few candles burned on a desk in the back, shedding almost as much light as the heavily shaded incandescent lamps. The shop… Continue reading The Transaction
by Terence Patrick Hughes Tom Tucker said he saw a dead body but when we got there it was gone. I had been minding my business that early evening outside of the house, transistor radio set against the top riser of the front steps, barely catching the signal of the Red Sox game with enough… Continue reading Tom Tucker’s Dead Body
by Olaf Kroneman 1967 was a bad year to be a hospital intern. My first rotation was unlucky. I was assigned to surgery during Detroit’s 1967 riot. The suffering, panic, and blood overflowed. Forty-three people died. Most of them came through our emergency room, and those that made it went to surgery. Those that didn’t… Continue reading The Elephant and the Dove
by Colleen Markley Clarice wasn’t sure which was odder: that she was becoming invisible or that her husband hadn’t noticed. “I must be overtired,” she remarked to John, examining the skillet she was scrubbing through an opening in the back of her hand. Was this glaucoma? She glanced up from the suds to the window… Continue reading Vanishing Act
by Brett Biebel I’d had sex before I met Davey, but not much, and it was mostly unsatisfying. With guys who were real earnest. Too earnest, probably. Like you could tell they prided themselves on respect, but maybe it was all just a pantomime of respect, and they were only doing it so they could… Continue reading The Boy Martyr
by Devan Hawkins Early in the evening, there was never any rhythm. The night of the Redcoat Club Reunion was no exception. A waitress would bring in a tray loaded with plates of uneaten food and crumpled napkins every few minutes, and clearing it was more like reaching for a glass of water at night,… Continue reading The Redcoat Club Reunion
by Simon A. Smith The first eight months of 2019 brought Chicagoans a minor celebrity claiming that he was the victim of a racist hate crime, a five-foot alligator nicknamed Chance the Snapper marooned in the Humboldt Park lagoon, and a summer marred by over 1,500 shootings. It’s hard to say which one got the… Continue reading The Treatment of Injuries
by Edward Michael Supranowicz Julie wandered the street like an orphan, an orphan of everything. Her clothes hung on her like she had slipped into them absentmindedly and was still trying to put them on. Her straight black hair was clipped into brutal bangs in the front and straight across on the sides and back,… Continue reading Middle of a Room
by Rowan MacDonald I met the badger on a cold night in May, in the cobblestone alley two streets down from the Rose and Crown. I needed to pee after too many pints of the Crown’s finest and knew my bladder wouldn’t survive a journey to the nearest taxi rank. The alley was deserted and… Continue reading What a Badger Might Say If You Met Him Down a Dark Alley One Night in May
Ignatian Literary Magazine 