I wanted pieces that would make me feel like I’ve been kicked in the gut one moment, and like I’ve lost  someone very dear to me the next. I wanted work that screamed, sometimes for no reason and sometimes because that is really the only way to deal with suffering sometimes. The pieces selected spoke to me in a number of ways. Not all hit me in the same way, but they all certainly hit me in some way. They were the pieces that had me thinking about them later in the day and into the next, the ones I wanted to talk about with strangers. Read the full Guest Editor’s Letter.

Guest Editor’s Spotlight: Our Fathers by Kerry Johnson

Mommy! by Janne Karlsson

Needing to Know How Penises Worked by Elliott batTzedek

The Super Sea Trade League Strike Force ™ by Adam Kotlarczyk

St. Theresa’s Apron by Rita Anderson

You Can Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye by Stefan Doru Moscu

Be Still My Soul by James Emery

In Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of GI Boots on the Ground by Gerard Sarnat

apricity to the man unraveling thread by Hannah Hamilton

All the Gorgeous Are Broken by Wel Sed

Falter Suite by Elizabeth Deanna Morris Lakes

Sister Death by Laura Madeline Wiseman

Disenfranchised by Julie Shavin

Nothing Ever Happens in a Car by Jim McGarrah

micrographie by Patrick Gaouyat

Shirley Xu Interviews Patrick Gaouyat

Rachel Nix Interviews Timothy Green of Rattle

Sam Slaughter is a writer based in Columbia, South Carolina. He received his BA from Elon University and his MA from Stetson University. He is currently at work on his MFA at the University of South Carolina. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in a variety of places, including Midwestern Gothic, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and Heavy Feather Review. He was awarded the 2014 Best of There Will Be Words and his debut chapbook When You Cross That Line was published in May 2015. His debut short story collection God in Neon will be published by Lucky Bastard Press in late 2015 and his debut novel, Dogs, will be published in 2016 by Double Life Press. He loves playing with puppies and a good glass of bourbon.