Home Is Where The Heart Is

Welcome to the ninth edition of Summer Stories, The Spokesman-Review’s annual celebration of short fiction. Since 2014, we have dedicated 10 weeks of summer to publishing new works by some of the region’s best authors. This year is no different. Except it is, in one small way. Not all of our stories this year will be works of fiction. Kate Lebo, poet, essayist and author of “Pie School” and “The Book of Difficult Fruit,” is joining us this year with thoughts on our theme, “Home Is Where the Heart Is.”

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Latest Stories

‘Pig Heart’

By Shawn Vestal

She was there when I awoke, smelling of Downy, fiddling with the heart-lung machine, cloaked in baggy blue scrubs, masked and wearing a surgical cap with a pattern of watermelon slices on a field of light blue.
‘Heart Is Where the Home Is’

By Kate Lebo

The heart in my home is in the freezer. Yes, there are hearts in each of the humans who share this house, and in the one cat, and in every freeloading insect that lives with us. But there is only one heart I can show off with …
‘Arise. Shine.’

By Shan Ferch

GABRIEL GENERALLY composed new work at Revival Tea Co., a basement shop downtown that calmed him. Two blocks north, the river was a reminder to him of how water and earth unify. Not unlike dark and day, he thought. He liked this city spread south from the …
‘A Fairer House than Prose’

By Sharma Shields

The witch buys a cottage in the remotest part of the forest, hoping to be left alone. She’s spent her long life ministering to the villagers, but they’ve turned on her anyway, mostly out of boredom, having stoned to death their previous scapegoat, the miller. Despite relying …
‘Key to the City’

By Stephanie Oakes

‘Congratulations,” the letter reads. “According to our records, you have accomplished the rare feat of living in every neighborhood in Spokane. For your efforts, the City of Spokane has awarded you a key to the city.”

I tip the envelope, and into my palm falls …
‘The Octopus Finds Love At Home’

By Leyna Krow

What can I say? I’d always been a solitary creature.

I thought I would spend my life alone, like my mother did, and my grandmother, and all my female ancestors for the last 300 million years or so. I won’t claim I was happy in my solitude, …
‘Detritus’

By Kris Dinnison

"Dad has a lot of crap."

Peter dropped a cardboard box onto a stack already three high. It swayed like a skyscraper in an earthquake. Peter shifted his hip against the stack, stopping the motion.

“Had,” Sara said.

“What?”

“Dad had a lot of crap. Stuff.”
‘Idyll’

By Bruce Holbert

In old black and white movies, deep sea divers traipse the bottom in bell helmets while a ship above supplies with air through a hose. The gear is heavy; each step requires deliberation, while aboard the ship walking remains as natural as growing toenails. My brother …
‘Move Along’

By Eli Francovich

Mac heard the news on a hot day in July. He’d woken up down by the river in a nice spot he’d found a month back, shaded and near a little pool. Most days he’d stay there for a few hours waking up slowly and watching the …
‘An Incident, With Glass’

By Thom Caraway

And just like that POOF! a couple houses were empty and another was full. Too full, but they couldn’t stop ordering things.

“How about this one?” Finger to screen, scroll, scroll. “This one?” Scroll, scroll.

“Wait, those might work. I like those.”

Why those might work and …