X-R-A-Y Literary Press

Many thanks for including Glass Stories on this list!! 🖤

THE ROSE by Joshua Hebburn Driving back after the funeral, he stopped at a Target to get Starbucks and take a piss. He’d stayed overnight at a motel, and he left the motel early in the morning to make it back east by driving all day.  Driving that morning he thought of the black and white picture of a Joshua tree in the room. It was the only thing not reusable in the motel; it was the sort of picture somebody would take in an intermediate photography class, not something tastelessly good the owners would get in a bulk purchase of decor.  There was something...

For Halloween, the one of my own I most often give to family members and acquaintances, "The Rose." Written for @xraylitmag.bsky.social Boneyard issue a few years ago.

xraylitmag.com/the-rose-by-...

NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT: ELEVEN BOOKS FOR HALLOWEEN by Matthew Kinlin Nightmares come at night. The poster for Halloween III: Season of the Witch shows the silhouettes of three children walking in Halloween costumes against a red night. A ghoulish apparition evaporates ...

we have a list of 11 books for Halloween, by Matthew Kinlin @matthewkinlin.bsky.social !

check it out !! & buy a book to read tonight while teenagers in hockey masks piss on yr front door

xraylitmag.com/nightmares-c...

Thank you so much @xraylitmag.bsky.social for giving this story the perfect home! 🦈

IN ANOTHER LIFE, I AM A DIRECT DESCENDANT OF SHARKS by Bethany Cutkomp And if I do not keep moving, I will pass away. They call this ram ventilation, a shark’s way of breathing. My invisible gills demand the same method of survival. Since hatching from your womb, I have ...

i really like this 500 word story by Bethany Cutkomp @bdcutkomp.bsky.social !

it's about that boy we all knew once, who rides his bike everywhere & can't sit still in class.

make sure to read 'In Another Life, I Am a Direct Descendent of Sharks' !!

xraylitmag.com/in-another-l...

tell me a word to ctrl-F in my novel

Thank you @xraylitmag.bsky.social ! After several years and multiple revisions, I’m so appreciative to see this piece in your journal!

THE DEN by Andy Bodinger I’d been in the Midwest a month. I had stepped off the Greyhound with clothing, toiletries, documents, and a cremation urn, which I kept my savings in. The locals considered my new town dead. At first...

we have a story by Andy Bodinger @andyandybodinger.bsky.social !

it's about a man who falls in with a group of 'amoebas' -- a group of isolated ppl w/ keys to a secret den where they can drink coffee & smoke cigs. no chit-chat.

but then a stranger shows up...

xraylitmag.com/the-den-by-a...

DARRIN DOYLE RECOMMENDS: EIGHT BOOKS OF FICTION THAT EVOKE THE LIMINAL Opening your eyes at night, unsure of where you are, half-dreaming, half-awake…staring into the darkness of a living room, thinking that the shadow near the door might be a man…or a coat rack… the tre...

here are eight books recommended by Darrin Doyle !

the focus is on the liminal - "books that are highly effective at making the reader feel as if they are occupying a space in between..."

xraylitmag.com/darrin-doyle...

This is my favorite thing I’ve written in a long time, in which a hunter is reincarnated as the deer he just killed. Thank you so much to Chris Dankland and the X-R-A-Y team, I’m such a huge fan of X-R-A-Y!! 🥰

STRANGE IS THE MEAT by Brittany Terwilliger As his bolt pierced the deer’s flesh, Nathan felt himself reduce, his body contracting into a dark, wet mass. He clenched against the blinding light, choking on snorts as he plopped onto a leafy patch...

we have a weird mobius strip of a story by Brittany Terwilliger @brttnyblm.bsky.social !

a hunter shoots a deer & is instantly reborn as a deer himself. a beautifully written piece -- i love its focus on "the laws of consumption"

xraylitmag.com/strange-is-t...

icymi: i wrote this story. people seem to like it. if you haven’t read it, maybe you will like it too. biggest thanks to @xraylitmag.bsky.social and especially to @joshuahebburn.bsky.social

THE HORSES, THE HORSES by John Torrance (Megan Pillow) All in all, it’s a good place to stop for the night. There’s little work to be done and a beauty of a view: a tranquil lake at the bottom of a grassy hill, lush and electric green beneath the early ev...

Back in 2019, I wrote a piece for @xraylitmag.bsky.social in the character of John Torrance from The Shining that was the supposed beginning of his book before it devolved. One of the most challenging and fun piece of life - I hope you’ll read it!

xraylitmag.com/the-horses-t...

Boneyard 2019 Special Horror Flash issue edited by Megan Pillow and Joaquin Fernandez.

A few years ago, I co-edited an excellent horror-themed issue for @xraylitmag.bsky.social called Boneyard. There are some amazing pieces in this issue by some of my favorite flash writers - please check it out!

xraylitmag.com/boneyard-201...

<3 <3 this was so cool ! we should do it next halloween, thank u for the reminder

hi i wrote this story. if you ever were into multiplayer video games i hope it means something to you

This is so damn good! @burialmagazine.bsky.social, you a killer!

I love this one. If ever you experienced mid-late aughts MMORPG culture, you'll feel right at home in this new @burialmagazine.bsky.social story, which is experimental and wonderful. So much sitting on the periphery.

Return to the internet fellow adventurers.

ADVENTURERS by Z.H. Gill Yo ho ho, adventurers, but beware: Poisonaut Buccaneers are pillaging the Indigo Coast! But Quartermaster Zabbrock’s informant has the coordinates to their secret base…Can you weather the pirate lair’...

we have a story by Z.H. Gill @burialmagazine.bsky.social !

it's written in the form of a chat log of players on an online multiplayer game like world of warcraft. then someone’s dad shows up in the chat…

read this great story !!

xraylitmag.com/adventurers-...

<3

Thank you to @xraylitmag.bsky.social for giving "Bellybutton Baby" such a great home! I was told not to start a story with a dream sequence, so naturally, the contrarian in me had to give it a go. "Bellybutton" was also a winner of the Summer 2025 City Writes competition (@citystgeorges.bsky.social)

BELLYBUTTON BABY by Dilys Wyndham Thomas I have this recurring nightmare in which I swim through amniotic fluid. Poppies litter the fluid, and a baby is lost somewhere amongst all the falling flowers, out of reach, beyond my thrashing hands....

today we have a story by Dilys Wyndham Thomas @dilyswt.bsky.social !

it’s about a woman traveling, spending nights with different men while haunted by a recurring nightmare of a lost baby. great sentences, a great mood -- read this wonderful story !!

xraylitmag.com/bellybutton-...

MY ENTIRE EXISTENCE PROJECTING ACROSS THE UNIVERSE IN BILLOWS OF GLITTER, CONFETTI, AND FLUSTERED GIGGLES by Sophie Kearing At the intersection between the Many-Worlds Interpretation and the Law of Assumption, you can bow out of the shitty life you’ve created for yourself and slip into an existence that’s basically your ow...

we have a story by Sophie Kearing !

i like this story b/c it's about being happy, a true rarity in literature -- but (for me) there's a tinge of the manic & hyperreal mixed in too, which makes for an interesting result

read this pronto !

xraylitmag.com/my-entire-ex...

Def picking this up. Children of the new Flesh was great.

CONTROL AND THE FUCKTOPUS: A CONVERSATION WITH CHRIS KELSO ABOUT ŻUŁAWSKI’S 'POSSESSION' by Alice Chris Kelso is a Scottish writer of dark, weird fiction. I came to his work through Voidheads (Schism), and he’s since published Metampsychosis with Feral Dove, and most recently, a monograph on the f...

Chris Kelso is interviewed by Alice @notveryalice.bsky.social about his book on Żuławski’s 'Possession'

such a smart & insightful conversation !! cop Kelso's book & watch or re-watch 'Possession' this halloween

xraylitmag.com/control-and-...

THE BACKYARD GRAVE by Marina Manoukian My father dug his own grave. But he didn’t use it right away. For years, the grave lay unfilled and inviting. All he would do was visit it once in a while, stand by its empty feet, and sigh. I don’t k...

we have a story by Marina Manoukian !!

in this story, the narrator’s father digs his grave in the backyard & keeps the open grave there for years. once, the narrator sleepwalked & woke up in the grave…

xraylitmag.com/the-backyard...

Hoshoryu was gifted a giant soy sauce after becoming Grand Champion in London.

mike topp was interviewed by lo-fi lit & it's one of my favorite things of 2025

lotsa good stories, jokes, & talk about writing

open.spotify.com/episode/1cT3...

Not a Christmas carp but a lovely Jewish story about gefilte fish and faith and wonder (and loss of faith) - in @xraylitmag.bsky.social by Zoe Rose.