Short Fiction and Poetry

DarkWinter Literary Magazine is thrilled to announce our 2025 Best Of The Net nominees! [...]

William (Bill) Winkle, a dedicated and irascible 40-year overnight editor at the Toronto Journal, [...]

They rose slowly from the bowels of the ship, toward the restaurant deck. They listened to Muzak selections as the elevator ascended [...]

While my AP English students always read an excerpt from A Room’s of One Own, they must experience one of Woolf’s novels. [...]

His name was Jasper Jangle. He was the self-proclaimed master of the jingle for all area businesses. He crept into my office [...]

I am lost, searching this beach for hours to find our Airbnb. There was some kind of accident, you were hurt, but the details are fuzzy [...]

I had the two of you lodged in my heart, less like shrapnel than some slow-spreading poison. Inexorable, the capillary action of family [...]

Who is the woman living inside me, under this marmalade skin sagging at the seams, with calcified hands darkened by chocolate-brown spots [...]

I wake to a ragged scream followed by a series of muffled whimpers. Then, violent retching. It takes a moment to get my bearings. I’m lying on the couch in the living room.

“You must have read about Irwin; it was all over the news,” John told me during dinner. John had invited me to visit him at his cottage [...]

“So, what you’re telling me, Mr. Thanatos, is that you’re depressed about your job.”   The man sitting in the chair across from her nodded. [...]

“Sweet!” Rick grinned as his cell pinged with a new order from the DeliveryToGo App. Easy money, man. He took his phone with him [...]

He took a long drag off his cigarette and turned the wheel of the car with stiff movement. His winter coat was bulky, [...]

The desk was immaculate. Not a single misplaced document, not a fingerprint smudging the polished glass […]

After Dad left, Mom took a black pill every day. Before she drank her morning coffee, she went into the bathroom, took the pill, and came out [...]

Some of it started with a dream. Lots have started with dreams. The sublime and the profane of it. Starring in this dream was an articulate worm. [...]

At fourteen, my friend Eddie and I decided we were ready to lose our virginities.  To each other. [...]

The old stove smoked as she pulled the muffins out and placed them on the table. It had probably been there since the house was built [...]

I’m in a casino watching lots of people playing different games and they all have that desperate, grim look upon their faces. [...]

Chelsea always had a cigarette clasped between her fingers.  That day she’d chosen Marlboros, courtesy of her five-finger discount. [...]