April 8, 2024

2024 Cow Creek Chapbook Prize

Posted by in Writing
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 in Member Writing & Art, Writing
Michael Larrain’s “The Life of A Private Eye”

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 1, 2024

Fictional Cafe’s National Poetry Month, 2024

Posted by in Member Writing & Art, Writing
Fictional Cafe’s National Poetry Month, 2024

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 13, 2024

“Switch” A Short Story by Yuan Changming

Posted by in Writing
“Switch” A Short Story by Yuan Changming

*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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February 28, 2024

“Between The Notes” by Steve Sangapore

Posted by in Writing
“Between The Notes” by Steve Sangapore

*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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February 20, 2024

“Becoming Queen,” A Short Story by Lorraine Parrish

Posted by in Writing
“Becoming Queen,” A Short Story by Lorraine Parrish

*Featured image courtesy of Pexels on Pixabay* Doubt has a funny way of sneaking into our minds when we least expect it, and all we need is a little encouragement to push past that negative voice. Come along as Lorraine guides us through an elegant performance in “Becoming Queen.” Inky darkness disguises me among the shifting walls of velvet.  It calls to me — an energy that ebbs and flows, like blood pumping throughout my veins.   Come closer. This whir of energy beckons, sighing into my ear — Reveal yourself to me.    My skin tingles in anticipation as high-pitched whispers dissipate into an atmosphere rife with tension and excitement. Normally light on my feet, I stumble over a wooden block secured to the floor. Their expressions — raised eyebrows, and curled lips—reveal both contempt and perhaps, surprise? Whatever…

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February 6, 2024

An American Family in Crete

Posted by in Interviews, Member Writing & Art, Writing
An American Family in Crete

Veteran FC Barista and lifelong iconoclast Jason Brick moved his family and his writing to the Greek Island of Crete for a year to learn about another people and their culture. We were delighted to hear about his Odyssey and eager to find out what it was like, so Jack interviewed Jason recently and got these comments and photos back to share with you, our faithful Coffee Clubbers. Please share your Comments and ask Jason any questions you may have. He’ll be back. Jack: What in the heck are you doing in Crete? Jason: I’ve brought my family to Greece for a year so we can experience what it’s like to live in a country and a culture distinct from America. We’re on the island of Crete, which is off the coast of mainland Greece—the…

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February 4, 2024

“Zzzzzz….” A Short Story by Dan Brook 

Posted by in Guest Posts, Writing
“Zzzzzz….” A Short Story by Dan Brook 

“Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.” Feeling a little sticky with sweat and having butterflies in his stomach, Anatta was getting anxious and slightly panicky. He realized the irony of racing to the San Francisco Zen Center, but he could not help himself. He was rushing to get there, just so he could sit still in silence to calm his mind, supposedly to see “the nature of reality” as he had read somewhere. It wasn’t the only irony, to be sure, and he got agitated thinking he was running late, though he was actually on time as usual.   Exiting the MUNI station, as Anatta did each week, he was still in…

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January 25, 2024

As I Make You

Posted by in Writing
As I Make You

A Flash Fiction by Matthew Bala Image Courtesy of Al Quino, unsplash.com Bulging my fingers into the spinning clay, I look into the rotating bottom and let my tears glisten there—the figure moves faster than my hands can shape, and I’m left with only a few touches to produce the right form.  The pad of my thumb grazes the orbiting ovoid, trimming up and at its waist into some obscene shape; surrendering a chuckle, I retreat my hands, looking at this earthly bong I’ve now made. The long snout stretches for air, its bottom rounded to the sides of the hog pan.  My palms now fondle the roundness of my creation, feeling the argil beard my cupped hands and cuticles of bending fingers. Deliberately, I close my two arms in on each other, shooting my…

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