On "Last Girlfriend" by Chris Vola (1982 words) ***

I'm not sure exactly what to make of this story. A lesbian whose ex is now an ex goes out on the town and picks up a boy--or maybe she just imagines it. No matter. The writing itself here is really cool, drawing us into this collegiate world of too much booze and a little too much self-confidence masking an internal lack of it. Read the tale here at Volume 1 Brooklyn.

On "Lake Celeste or The Joy of Sex" by Emily Meg Weinstein (2808 words) ***

This reads more like a family reminiscence than a story, but it's a finally crafted piece of writing about, of all things, time travel. As Weinstein notes, "If you want to travel through time just make sure one place, one house, stays unchanged your whole life. It turns out you don’t need math to build a time machine, only time itself." And that's Weinstein does, focuses on a summer lake house that, while generations of family have passed away, continues to exist, with its rotting books and old scrawl of phone messages. Read the tale here at Volume 1 Brooklyn.

On "The Divorce Party" by Deenah Vollmer (713 words) ****

All the old cliches are here but made new because in Vollmer's world, the reception occurs when the marriage is over rather than when it begins. It's a strange way to look at a relationship--or the end of one. And certainly, I suppose, there may be some truth to it, the idea of new beginnings mixed with that tinge of sadness at the end of other things. One will miss marriage as one misses singlehood. If only our lives didn't become so entwined that such splits weren't more angst driven. But then again, among those who have been married six times (as with a person I recently met), maybe one gets used to such things. Read the story here at Volume 1 Brooklyn.