In Pushkin's Gray Suit, a young writer works a construction job while waiting for his big break. An evening spent with a mysterious co-worker and his fantastic story of Luka in the fraying gray suit make him rethink his choice of career.

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In 42, a 20-something works random midnight shifts at a fast-food joint to connect with a youth he lost. During these graveyard shifts, he competes in burger-making contests with his younger colleagues, hiding his sense of being mismatched with his age behind a calm, confident demeaner.

Get the ebook "A Physicist's Guide to Love" to read more stories by this writer.

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In 1994, a girl and her father travel up from Newfoundland for work as the economics of home become worse and worse. Staying with friends dredges up a past incident, and the girl questions her father’s choice to put them in this predicament. Their situation is not unique; everyone and everything on the island is making such calculations on their past and future.

Get the ebook "A Physicist's Guide to Love" to read more stories by this writer.

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“Where Things Rise, Unannounced” by Erin MacNair won EVENT magazine’s 2018 Creative non-fiction contest, and was also long listed for the 2018 CBC nonfiction contest. EVENT magazine contest judge Lori Ann Wilson said: (MacNair) is acutely aware what’s on the surface is always underwritten by the past, the unknown and the unseen.” The various themes of mental illness, eco-anxiety, and parental guilt are woven into this story of struggle and acceptance.

Erin MacNair is a published non-fiction and fiction short story writer. Her work has appeared in The Walrus, Room Magazine, EVENT and other journals and anthologies. She has an upcoming speculative fiction piece in the spring issue of Prairie Fire magazine. She is currently working on a book of fictional short stories and a novel, and infrequently pens a blog: “Views from the Obtuse Angle.” Visit her website www.erinmacnair.com, for more of her work.

Find more short story podcasts at Fresh New Shorts. Subscribe to hear a new story each week.

Cinnamon, Sask, is perhaps the driest place on earth, with a drought spanning years. After her divorce, a woman and her son move to the town to teach. They are not the only fish out of water or waterless plain. A Dad and his daughter are building a huge boat on the prairie, attracting the suspicion and ire of a local family.

Get the ebook "A Physicist's Guide to Love" to read other stories by this writer.

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Welcome to our All Saint’s Eve edition of Fresh New Shorts. Listen to new short fiction from award-winning writers.

The Crucifix of Nicolo Aldovrandi, by John Blackmore, pays homage to the settings, characters, and atmosphere of an Edgar Allen Poe story. A Florentine priest near the end of his life is confronted about a body missing from its grave, one that should have been interred decades ago. The priest had been dealing in corpses—simple farmers, soldier, servants. But his decision about what to do with the deceased and beautiful Nicolo Aldovrandi returns to haunt him.

Get the ebook "A Physicist's Guide to Love" to read other stories by this writer.

Find more short story podcasts at Fresh New Shorts. Subscribe to hear a new story each week.

"The Chemistry of Unhappiness" by Erin MacNair is a dystopian tale where humans fall victim to their own emotional states, a silent attack from the inside out can unexpectedly cause you to freeze up or burn to ash. But... there might just be a cure to save us. It was runner up in EVENT magazine’s 2019 speculative fiction contest.

Erin is a published non-fiction and fiction short story writer. Her work has appeared in The Walrus, Room Magazine, EVENT and other journals and anthologies. She has an upcoming speculative fiction piece in the Spring Issue of Prairie Fire magazine. She is currently working on a book of fictional short stories and a novel, and infrequently pens a blog: “Views from the Obtuse Angle.” Visit her website www.erinmacnair.com, for more of her work.

Find more short story podcasts at Fresh New Shorts. Subscribe to hear a new story each week.

Today's story is "Parallax," by Terence Young. You can learn more about his writing at www.terenceyoung.ca.

"Parallax" is more a lyrical narrative than a traditional short story in that it attempts to convey the long life of a couple through a succession of details, impressions and random snips of dialogue, using at times some of the elements of poetry, such as repetition.  

Terence Young has published several books of poetry and short fiction, as well as a novel. His first collection of poetry, The Island in Winter, was shortlisted for the Governor General's award, and his novel, After Goodlake's, won the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize.

His work has appeared in journals across Canada, as well in England, France, Germany and the U.S. A third collection of poetry, Smithereens, is forthcoming from Harbour Publishing in the spring of 2021.

It's Canadian Thanksgiving! We're offering a short poem from a collection that's based on seasons. This one is a wistful goodbye to summer, and to being young.

We hope everyone is safe and wish you and your families health and contentment.

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Buoyancy places us in modern-day France and a blend of fairy tales. A boy and his abandoned mother befriend a young girl living alone on a sprawling estate. The sole survivor of a family boating accident, she has made a terrible bargain to survive days of being lost at sea. The boy seems to have also unknowingly made an unnatural exchange for her love.  

Get the ebook "A Physicist's Guide to Love" to read Buoyancy and 17 other stories.

Find more short story podcasts at Fresh New Shorts. Subscribe to hear a new story each week.