house(hold) by Lindsay Stewart, our 2022 Winner! Purchase HERE.
Longing and Other Heirlooms by Arati Warrier and Sagaree Jain, our 2021/2022 Winner! Purchase HERE.
Snow by Emma R. Collins, Our 2019/2020 Winner! Purchase HERE.
Emma R. Collins is an MFA candidate in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing at Emerson College. Her short stories have appeared in the online magazine The Worcester Journal. Originally from a small town in central Massachusetts, she now manages content for a major EdTech company in Boston. She and her boyfriend share their apartment with her cat, Finnegan.
The following is an excerpt from Snow.
A wolf.
I snuck my way downstairs and out to the back, but I stopped at the screen door. I was shivering, even though the air was still warm and the crickets still chirped. I held my breath waiting for it.
The long, ghostly sound rose and wailed, and then faded away. It made my body feel cold. I put my hands on the screen door and I remember slowly, quietly, pushing it open. I walked down the couple of steps and onto the hard-packed earth of the back yard. I scrunched my toes under, shivering.
Modern Audubon by Joshua Daniel Edwin, Our 2018/19 Winner!
Joshua Daniel Edwin writes and translates poetry. He was raised in Baltimore and has lived in Atlanta, Seoul, and New York. His work appears widely in print and online, including a translation chapbook from Argos Press. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.
The following is an excerpt from Modern Audubon
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We would be happy to print a second edition if we have an order of 15 or more copies. Please contact us if you are interested at eggtootheditions@gmail.com .
Sparrow Pie by Katie Quinnelly, Our 2017/18 Winner!
Katie is a West Virginian writer with two houseplants and a lot of pet rocks. She currently teaches climbing classes at Climbing New Heights in Martinsburg, WV and is a climbing guide in the Appalachian Mountains.
Image Credit: Lex Rodgers
The following is an excerpt from Sparrow Pie:
I rent the apartment upstairs from Marcus. His garage is full of junk he uses to make things, like a shop vac or parts for his car or a sparrow trap.
Once, when I passed his garage, he was trying to find a silver rod for his chicken coop. He lured me in with his homemade apple brandy.
After searching for a while he became so frustrated he told me he thinks about killing himself. When he looks in the mirror he says he sees a monster.
On the shelf in his garage is a box that contains an old Halloween decoration. On the box written in sharpie it says “Marcus the Carcass” and inside is a rubber zombie mannequin.
Marcus says he feels so alone sometimes he wants to be the dead one.
The sparrow trap sits at the end of the driveway. It’s a metal structure that lets sparrows in with no exit. After a few hours in the cage, they just die. Marcus says when he has six of them, he’ll make a sparrow pie.
I walked past the sparrow trap this morning and there were two sparrows. They looked exactly alike except that one of them was alive, still trying to get out, and the other one was dead in the corner.
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We would be happy to print a second edition if we have an order of 15 or more copies. Please contact us if you are interested at eggtootheditions@gmail.com .
Treating Attachment Disorder by Eugenie Montague, Our 2017/18 Winner!
Eugenie Montague earned her MFA from the University of California, Irvine. Her short fiction has been published by NPR; Amazon; Flash Friday, a flash-fiction series from Tin House and the Guardian Books Network; Fiction Southeast; and is forthcoming by Faultline and the Mid-American Review. She lives in El Paso, Texas, where she is working on her first novel.
The following is an excerpt from Treating Attachment Disorder:
Frequently Asked Questions about the Holding Therapy Reimagined® Seminar
Q: What is holding therapy?
A: Holding therapy is a widely-practiced form of therapy used to treat and prevent attachment disorders. In a holding-therapy session, the child is firmly held by the mother for a prolonged period of time.
Q: Why is holding important in treating attachment disorders?
A: Thinkabout attachment as a kind of adhesive that holds you and your child together: the stronger the adhesive, the safer your child feels in the world. Children with attachment disorders suffer precisely because the attachment to the mother—the original and primary attachment—is weak or dysfunctional. Holding your child firmly for prolonged periods physicalizes the mother-child bond, strengthening it. At the same time, it compels the child who struggles with forming attachments to maintain a connection with you, the primary caregiver.
Q: After twenty minutes or so, my child really struggles in my embrace. Sometimes my child seems angry. Should I let go?
A: No. The more the child struggles in holding, the more the child struggles to form attachments. By holding your child more firmly during these moments, you are demonstrating the maternal bond. You are correct to recognize your child’s anger, but it is not because of the holding; it’s because you failed to cement that maternal bond in the first place. If the child expresses this anger, and you let go, you are only reinforcing your child’s belief that you don’t love him or her.
Q: My child says he or she does feel attached to me and is not angry, that he or she simply wants to play with friends, watch TV, et cetera?
A: Have you ever heard the expression ‘that’s the disease talking’?
Q: Didn’t some children die from this?
A: No. That is rebirthing therapy, which is only tangentially associated with holding therapy.
Q: What does the Holding Therapy Reimagined® seminar consist of?
A: The Holding Therapy Reimagined Seminar® consists of eight, three-hour long holding therapy sessions with Dr. Kala where you will hold your child in the presence of other mothers and their children. Dr. Kala will be on hand to assist with the holding techniques and to help you break through to your child. It further includes two mothers-only training sessions; one personal consultation with Dr. Kala; Dr. Kala’s book, Holding Therapy Reimagined©; and the C.A.D. ® App.
Q: How much does the Holding Therapy Reimagined Seminar® cost?
A: The Holding Therapy Reimagined Seminar® costs $2500.
Q: Can fathers participate in the Holding Therapy Reimagined® Seminar?
A: No. Dr. Kala’s seminar is for mothers only. While Dr. Kala appreciates fathers and the movement toward gender equity in child rearing, the original attachment should be with the mother. Frequent holding sessions with the father only threaten that bond.
Quasar #6 by Megan Heise, Our 2015/16 Winner!
Megan Heise is a writer, artist, and performer based in Boulder, CO, where she is an MFA candidate at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University.
The following is an excerpt from Quasar #6:
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