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By Rebecca Lesser
There are those moments in the summer when you can lose yourself for hours in a good beach read, and there are times when you only have a few minutes to spare. Why not satisfy your literary craving with a short story from your favourite magazine? We’re sharing a few of our favourites to get you started.
“A Little Space Music” by Edward Willett is a humorous science fiction short story published in On Spec’s Spring 2012 issue (available as a free pdf download on the magazine’s website). Professor Peter Peak aka Jerry Smith, a former stage performer turned interplanetary con man finds himself directing a musical theatre for an audience of aliens aboard a spaceship headed for their homeland.
Dr. Reshmi Hebbar’s short story “The Divine In You,” is featured in a June 2020 post on the Funicular magazine website. The story traces a young Indian American girl’s memories of her time at temple summer camp, as she navigates Hindu culture and community, evolving friendships, and sexual identity.
The Prairie Journal provides a treasure trove of short stories in their online archive of content from the past several years. Looking for mystery and intrigue? Scroll through to the 2022 listing for author Stephen R. Bourne’s “Recompense,” a Montague Scott mystery based in mid-nineteenth century Canada. Doctor Scott is a doctor and medical examiner with “an uncanny propensity to encounter or uncover the unexplained.”
In Cherries Bar Cherries by Joy Norstrom (Alberta Views, October 2023) a mother finds comfort in gambling machines above everything else in her life. This story has two 2023/24 Alberta Magazine Awards nominations, in both the fiction category and for the accompanying illustration by Byron Eggenschwiler.
Maybe you’d like to listen to something while you’re busy in the garden. FreeFall thought of that! They’ve shared a video recording featuring four contributors from their Volume 32 Number 2 (2022) issue, including Kendall Bistretzan reading her story “Bedfellows.”
You can read more short stories by browsing the Alberta Magazine Awards fiction category archives, by borrowing an eMagazine from your local library, or better yet, by picking up a copy of your favourite literary magazine.