(These are excerpts—click on the title to view the whole piece!)
 

Skintet

The Department was an American office started under the last administration. Human rights orgs criticized this office for its forceful deportations and breaking up of families. He clicked a black button with white letters reading Victims of Brassican Violence, drew his knuckles to his lip, and offered me the chair. The mouse felt warm after Barben had controlled it. "Say what you want about the President. But he's been making strides addressing their crime. This is how you can report your—"

Perry Genovesi
 

Esmerelda
(Spotlight Runner-Up!)

I wanted to do another painting of my girlfriend right away, but she told me I had exploited her and, in any case, painted her breasts wrong. That evening, she became morose, standing in front of the bathroom mirror for the longest time. At bedtime, she slept with her back to me. In the morning, she complained of vertigo and called in sick to work. When I came home, her things were gone. On the counter, a hand-scrawled poem.

Huntley Gibson Paton
 

A Female Cod Can Lay Up to Nine Million Eggs

This is impossible, he said. But you have at least nine million babies inside of you. Her womb held a continent.

Meg Pokrass
 

My Life as a Jew

But I have fond memories of Mrs. Ginzburg, not on account of her junket but because I sensed qualities her that even at a young age I found irresistible. I knew my mother loved me, but she never expressed it the way Mrs. Ginzburg showed affection toward her own boy. My mother's highest praise was a backhand compliment like, "He's not so bad, I suppose." But Larry's mother exuded human warmth like an exotic scent. I think it was in her kitchen I decided I would marry a woman like her.

Thomas J. Hubschman