• The latest from the front lines of literature
  • No menu assigned
FSG | Work in progress
Close Search
  • Home
  • Archive
  • 01.25.19
    Portals
    Short Story

    Portals

    I went to Paris to meet a girl called Monica. I’ve never forgotten it. She was a dancer from Spain. I met her at a wedding in Barcelona where the groom was the only person I knew. We really got on, Monica and me...

    Chris Power Short Story

    READ MORE
  • 11.09.18
    Lost in the Louvre
    Short Story
    Lost in the Lourve by Lucia Berlin

    Lost in the Louvre

    Evening in Paradise is a collection of previously uncompiled stories from the short-story master and literary sensation, Lucia Berlin. After reading them, Dwight Garner of The New York Times wrote, "Berlin probably deserved a Pulitzer Prize." The stories take us from Texas...

    Lucia Berlin Short Story

    READ MORE
  • 04.06.18
    Land Deal
    Short Story
    Gerald Murnane Land Dea

    Land Deal

    Teju Cole says he is "a genius." The New York Times calls him "the greatest living English-language writer most people have never heard of." Gerald Murnane is a singular writer finally receiving his due attention. Read here his story "Land Deal," from the...

    Gerald Murnane Short Story

    READ MORE
  • 03.16.17
    Letters Home
    Short Story
    Swimmer Among the Stars by Kanishk Tharoor

    Letters Home

    1 The pharaoh Necko was not content to rule the Upper and the Lower. He wanted knowledge of the whole. So he plopped a crew of Phoenicians down in the Red Sea and told them to go home...

    Kanishk Tharoor Swimmer Among the Stars

    READ MORE
  • 05.19.16
    Man and Bird
    Short Story
    Man and Bird

    Man and Bird

    Salon’s Laura Miller called Fiona McFarlane's The Night Guest "a novel of uncanny emotional penetration . . . How could anyone so young portray so persuasively what it feels like to look back on a lot more life than you can see in...

    Fiona McFarlane

    READ MORE
  • 10.23.15
    Dolls
    Short Story
    Daydreams of Angels

    Dolls

    The fantastic has always been at the edges of Heather O'Neill's work. In her bestselling novels Lullabies for Little Criminals and The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, she transformed the shabbiest streets of Montreal with her beautiful, freewheeling metaphors. In Daydreams of...

    Heather O'Neill

    READ MORE
  • 09.10.15
    Only the Animals
    Short Story
    Only the Animals

    Only the Animals

    THE BONES Soul of Camel Died 1892, Australia The three of us were nodding off around the campfire, the queen’s yellow bones in a sack beside my owner, when I saw the goanna watching us again, the same one that...

    Ceridwen Dovey Short Story

    READ MORE
  • 08.20.15
    Angel’s Laundromat
    Short Story
    Lucia Berlin

    Angel’s Laundromat

    In his review of A Manual for Cleaning Women, Dwight Garner wrote in The New York Times that Lucia Berlin is “the real deal. Her stories swoop low over towns and moods and minds.” We couldn’t agree more and, in addition to...

    Lucia Berlin

    READ MORE
  • 05.29.15
    The Geranium
    Short Story
    The Geranium

    The Geranium

    Our National Short Story Month celebrations continue with one of the first stories written by the unparalleled Flannery O’Connor. Appropriately, O’Connor will begin gracing Forever stamps on June 5th. “The Geranium” can be found in her recently reissued The Complete Stories. Enter...

    Flannery O'Connor Short Story

    READ MORE
  • 05.14.15
    Monument
    Short Story
    Gutshot by Amelia Gray

    Monument

    Our National Short Story Month celebrations continue with a master of the macabre. “Monument” by Amelia Gray can be found in her latest collection, Gutshot. The townspeople met at the graveyard at the agreed-upon time. They...

    Amelia Gray Short Story

    READ MORE
  • 05.08.15
    Resort Tik Tok
    Short Story
    Resort Tik Tok by Arthur Bradford

    Resort Tik Tok

    National Poetry Month has blossomed into National Short Story Month. To celebrate, we will be sharing a story a week throughout the month of May. The following is one from Arthur Bradford's collection Turtleface and Beyond. A...

    Arthur Bradford Short Story

    READ MORE
  • 07.09.12
    Mother Backwards
    Short Story

    Mother Backwards

    By Andrés Neuman Translated from the Spanish by Richard Gwyn This story first appeared in The Coffin Factory, issue 3 I entered the hospital dying of hatred and wanting to give thanks. How fragile is rage. We might shout, hit, spit at a stranger. The same person to whom – depending on their verdict, depending on whether they tell us what we are anxious to hear – we might suddenly express our admiration, or hug, or swear an oath of loyalty. And it would be genuine, that love. I entered without thinking anything, thinking about not thinking. I knew that my mother’s present, my future, depended on the toss of a coin. And that that coin was not in my hands and maybe not in the hands of anyone else either, not even those of the doctor. I have always thought that the absence of god liberated us from an unbearable weight. But more than once, I have missed the idea of divine mercy when entering or leaving a hospital. Filled with seats, corridors, hierarchies and ceremonies of hope, silent on their upper floors, hospitals are the closest thing to a cathedral in which we unbelievers may tread. I entered trying to avoid this kind of reasoning, because I was afraid that I would end up praying like a cynic. I lent an arm to my mother, who so many times had given me hers when the world was enormous and my legs very short. Is it possible to shrink overnight? Can someone’s body turn into a sponge that has soaked up so many fears that it gains in density, while losing volume? My mother seemed shorter, thinner, but nevertheless more laden down than before, as if earthbound. Her porous hand closed over mine. I imagined a child in a bathtub, naked, expectant, squeezing a sponge. And I wanted to say something to my mother, and I didn’t know how to speak.

    READ MORE
  • 04.13.12
    Willem Dafoe, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Shalom Auslander Read Etgar Keret
    Short Story

    Willem Dafoe, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Shalom Auslander Read Etgar Keret

    There's something about Etgar Keret's short stories that sound great when read aloud. Fortunately for us, a few of his notable friends have volunteered to read pieces from his latest collection, Suddenly, A Knock on the Door. You can also read Keret's story "Mystique" along with Willem Dafoe, should you so choose. "What Animal Are You?" Read by Jonathan Safran Foer "Mourner's Meal" Read by Shalom Auslander "Mystique" Read by Willem Dafoe

    READ MORE
  • 01.17.12
    Gary Shteyngart Reads Etgar Keret’s “What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?”
    Short Story

    Gary Shteyngart Reads Etgar Keret’s “What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?”

    There's something about Etgar Keret's short stories that works especially well online. Perhaps it's their terseness, their easy vernacular, or their wry approach to the fundamental oddness of modern life. Also, magic goldfish. Gary Shteyngart—novelist, Twitterer, and illiteracy advocate—reads "What, of This Goldfish,...

    READ MORE
  • 09.15.11
    Fiction to Get You Through Your Workday
    Short Story

    Fiction to Get You Through Your Workday

    With summer nearly over, you might be less motivated than usual to trudge through another day at the office. Thankfully Daniel Orozco is here to help. Work in Progress readers will likely remember his short story "Orientation" from May. Now you can...

    READ MORE
  • 07.14.11
    Recent Longreads Highlights
    Short Story

    Recent Longreads Highlights

    Every month we'll roundup highlights from our Longreads page, where we'll be posting articles, interviews, and stories longer than 2,000 words. (Also keep an eye out for our Twitter posts marked with the #longreads tag.) From the past...

    READ MORE
  • 05.17.11
    Orientation: A Short Story by Daniel Orozco
    Short Story
    Orientation Orozco

    Orientation: A Short Story by Daniel Orozco

    The following short story is excerpted from Daniel Orozco's debut collection Orientation and Other Stories. Those are the offices and these are the cubicles. That's my cubicle there, and this is your cubicle. This is your phone. Never answer your phone. Let the Voicemail System answer it. This is your Voicemail System Manual. There are no personal phone calls allowed. We do, however, allow for emergencies. If you must make an emergency phone call, ask your supervisor first. If you can't find your supervisor, ask Phillip Spiers, who sits over there. He'll check with Clarissa Nicks, who sits over there. If you make an emergency phone call without asking, you may be let go.

    Daniel Orozco

    READ MORE
© 2023 FSG Work In Progress FSG Books | Ads and Cookies | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Notice | Your Privacy Choices
  • Home
  • Dare to Imagine
  • Essays
  • In Conversation
  • Excerpts
  • Poetry
  • On Writing
  • On Writers
  • Book Recommendations
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Search
    The owner of this website has made a commitment to accessibility and inclusion, please report any problems that you encounter using the contact form on this website. This site uses the WP ADA Compliance Check plugin to enhance accessibility.