April 8, 2024

2024 Cow Creek Chapbook Prize

*Featured image courtesy of Alvaro Serrano on Unsplash Attention all poets! In honor of National Poetry Month, we want to bring your attention to a contest by Cow Creek Chapbook. Check out the information below if you are interested. From Cow Creek Chapbook: Judge – Traci Brimhall Submission Deadline – May 15th, 2024Style and Subject – As long as the poems challenge and capture the imagination, we want to see them.Prize – $1,000 and 25 author copies.Submit – For more guidelines and our submission portal, visit our website: https://www.cowcreekchapbook.org/ Best of luck to anyone that submits. Don’t be afraid to let us know if you win, we love to show off our writers!

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April 3, 2024

Michael Larrain’s “The Life of A Private Eye”

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Member Writing & Art, Writing

Part 2 of the Epic Poem about a Los Angeles Private Eye If you’ve already read Part 1, you’re probably eager to read Part 2. If you haven’t read Part 1, then you oughta. Then you’ll want to read Part 2, because before you can finish it, next week we’ll publish Part 3. The Life of A Private Eye a Noirvelette by Michael Larrain Original Artwork by Katherine Willmore for James Crumley, in memoriam Part 2 How could I be dizzy if I didn’t exist? was my first question. I was asleep one moment and the next being carried on a sedan chair through tall rustling cornstalks by even taller women’s beach volleyball players whose legs went straight to the penthouse. When their shoulders touched the corn, it turned into salt water and they were…

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April 2, 2024

National Poetry Month 2024: Four Sonnets by Kai Jensen.

Posted by Malik White in Member Writing & Art

Kai kicks off NPM with an excellent collection of themed poems. Welcome to FC, Kai. Enjoy the blue ribbon! Desperado (Boneless Café) These short, bright autumn days, the sky a lighter blue than summer’s as though it’s fading with the year. The bay nudges into the land saying, Look what wealth of sparkles I bring. The fronds of the palms along Lamont Street dangle, relaxed, like a gunslinger’s fingers above the holster – or is that me, confident I can draw something out of all this loveliness to fly and pierce your heart? And like the desperado, I’m willing to gamble in this dangerous game of letting beauty enter us, my own flawed life. Boneless Café again Karen, on her way to a meeting, covered in zig-zags, stops to say hello as the track riffs…

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April 1, 2024

Fictional Cafe’s National Poetry Month, 2024

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Member Writing & Art, Writing

For the 4th year, Fictional Cafe spends the month of April celebrating poets and their poetry. April Fool’s Day notwithstanding, welcome to America’s National Poetry Month! We have a full month of great poetry, written by our own Coffee Club members, to share with you. Two highlights: please welcome our new Poet-in-Residence PS Conway! Just last month PS published his first collection of poetry in a book entitled Echoes Lost in Stars. It was an immediate hit bestseller. Grab your copy from your favorite bookseller. This guy loves to write, and we’re saving a special spot for an excerpt in two weeks. But first up for the month is a frequent contributor, Michael Larrain, who has written a six-part epic poem entitled “The Life of A Private Eye.” It’s engrossing, and we just published Part…

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March 27, 2024

Michael Larrain’s “The Life of A Private Eye”

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Member Writing & Art, Writing

Part I of “The Life of A Private Eye, a six-part epic “noirvelette” debuting here on The Fictional Cafe.

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March 26, 2024

10 Collages by Bill Wolak

Posted by Malik White in Fine Art

One of FC’s most beloved contributors has returned! Take a look at 10 more collages by the talented Bill Wolak. Artist’s Statement: Everywhere we look there are faces staring back at us. Out of the corner of the eye, we spy a wink from a passing shadow or a smile in a gleam of water. We project our selves outward into the field we experience. Collage sets out to record these fleeting impressions. “Drifting on a Strangers Smile” “Aloof as the Touch of a Mirror” “Learning How to Breathe Through Your Own Scars” “The Slip Knot’s Enticing Touch” “Tingling That Deepens Every Embrace” “Quick as a Smile’s Net of Moonlight” “The Arousal of Circular Lips” “The Tenderness of Seeds” “The Whisper of Sand” “With the Flesh of Awakening Moonlight” Bill Wolak has just published his…

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March 22, 2024

“The Temp” by Michael Wilhelm

Posted by Ruby Fink in Audio Arts

Follow the exploits of Bernie Pfelger, a clever man armed only with his wits, and a TEMP badge that opens the door to some of the most outlandish positions a man can get into. Each episode presents Bernie with a new, odd and sometimes bizarre assignment. The Pilot episode of a comedy series that documents the struggle of one man as he moves from one temp job to another hoping that one day he will be hired on. Bernie Pfelger finds himself temping at a very youth oriented gaming company. Bernie Pfelger finds himself working with a bevy of beauties who take his breath away with their line of cosmetics. We hope you have enjoyed listening to these episodes of “The Temp” by Michael Wilhelm. If you wish to hear more of these episodes, you…

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March 13, 2024

“Switch” A Short Story by Yuan Changming

Posted by Malik White in Writing

*Featured image courtesy of Shelby Deeter on Unsplash Love can be many things: intimate, passionate, and also . . . complicated. Read along for Yuan’s take on an interesting and unique love story. Before they joined each other in Zhuhai, Ming often complained to Hua that her love was like a loach in a rice field, full of splashing vitality, but really hard to catch, let alone hold it firmly in his hand. Given the fact that theirs was an unspeakable extramarital relationship, he knew that she had every reason to hide her affection even from herself, but since they began to honeymoon as temporary elopers on October 12, Ming has become increasingly aware that there seems to be an invisible switch that controls her emotional being. “What do you mean, what kind of switch?”…

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March 8, 2024

“Past Due” by Xperience J

Posted by Ruby Fink in Audio Arts

Underwhelmed by life and overwhelmed by disappointments, a 30-year-old writer and entrepreneur takes an introspective look at her life, and its shortcomings. Has her time come and gone, or is she simply a late bloomer? Meet Keena. She’s a 29-year-old, struggling artist/writer attempting to balance life as an entrepreneur while dealing with the everyday woes of working a 9 to 5. Keena explains why in life, there are no do-overs. Keena opens up a little bit more about both life and love…and how the two always seem to lead her down an unexpected yet very interesting path. Y’all still rocking with us? In other news, if you want to be a part of more shows like “Past Due”: Xperience J’s Black Audio Dramas Exist Database is NOW OPEN! https://bit.ly/blackaudiosinfo A Black Audio Drama: An audio…

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February 28, 2024

“Between The Notes” by Steve Sangapore

Posted by Malik White in Writing

*Featured image courtesy of Mike Castro Demaria on Unsplash* Let’s be honest: life can be hard. As artists we often create art as an outlet to relieve some of life’s stress, but what if this has the opposite effect? Read along for a transparent and insightful take from FC’s former Fine Art Barista Steve Sangapore, as he shares some of his struggles and discusses how taking a step back from creating helped with healing his mental health. The Value of Rests in the Music of Life Can art heal? Yes. I believe that the creation and the consumption of art both have the power to heal, feed and improve the human soul and intellect. However, through firsthand discovery, I learned that there are indeed situations in life when the creation of art can not only lose…

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