Demons and ghosts inhabit many of Kathryn Kulpa’s dazzling stories.  They dare us to go along for the ride with details that horrify or delight.  But danger abounds even for characters who are alive and well—for now.  One can’t forget the belt buckle that leaves a mark like a smile, the man in white sneakers, the cry of “Hold. On.” Or the assertion that “the girl dies at the end because that’s what girls do in stories.”  Read and never forget— that’s what readers do with Kulpa’s stories.  —Pamela Painter, author of What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers and Getting to Know the Weather

Kathryn Kulpa is a master of distilling a story down to its most essential, powerful form. She proves that again and again with every story in this stunning collection. These are the kind of stories that simmer. The kind that linger. The kind of stories you hold onto, and that hold onto you in return. —Cathy Ulrich, author of Ghosts of You

Purchase a signed copy from me! $12.50 includes US postage and a “Feed Your Demons” sticker or magnet. NOW AVAILABLE ON ETSY!

NEW & FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS

New and Forthcoming Books:

For Every Tower, a Princess: Micro-Chapbook, available now from Porkbelly Press
A Map of Lost Places, chapbook, forthcoming from Gold Line Press

Stories forthcoming in:

The Dribble Drabble Review
Flash Frog
HAD
Moon City Review
Okay Donkey

Recently Published Stories:

“Mosquitoes,” Your Impossible Voice, October 29, 2024

“How to Find Your Way Home When the Birds Have Eaten All Your Breadcrumbs,” Crow & Cross Keys, October 20, 2024

“Acrophobia,” Gooseberry Pie, Issue 22, October 17, 2024

“Settle,” Dirtbag, October 8, 2024

“Girls Next Door,” Blink-Ink, No. 57, “Summer Nights” issue

“Expiration Date,” trampset, August 23, 2024

“Swivel,” BULL, August 23, 2024

“Those Who Left and Those Who Stayed,” Roi Fainéant Press, August 18, 2024

“Emma Lassos the Moon,” Gooseberry Pie, July 4, 2024

“Here Be Wolves,” Ghost Parachute, July 1, 2024

“Flight 800,” Lunch Ticket, Issue 25, Summer/Fall 2024

“What is Yours First is Yours Forever,” Milk Candy Review, June 13, 2024

“Nocturne,” Bending Genres, June 11, 2024

“Penny Candy,” Flash Flood, June 2024

“Mushrooms,” Centaur, Spring 2024

“Gooseberries,” Second Place, Gooseberry Pie Writing Contest, 2024

“Snow Moon,” Flash Frontier, March 29, 2024

“But You Can Never Leave,” Fictive Dream (Flash Fiction February), February 17, 2024

“Snow Angels,” in Red Headed Writing: An Anthology of Grit Lit Incited by the Music & Lyrics of Willie Nelson (Cowboy Jamboree Press, 2024)

“To My Mother, in the Air,” in The Weather Where You Are: Bath Flash Fiction Anthology, Vol. 8, 2024

“Three Minutes into My Campaign Speech at the Fundraising Dinner, I Remember Our First Date,” Gooseberry Pie, Issue 3, February 2024

PUBLICATIONS—2023

“American Songbook,” Vestal Review, December 2023

“1969,” Lascaux Review, December 10, 2023 (Flash Fiction Contest finalist)

“T, My Name is Tonya,” Fractured Lit, November 27, 2023 (Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist 2024)

“Switch,” Does It Have Pockets?, November 2023 [Honorable Mention, 2023 (One Hand in My) Pocket-Sized Fiction Prize]

“A Door is a Secret, Revealed,” Fictive Dream, October 29, 2023 (Best Small Fictions 2024)

“Dorothy Gale Hitchhikes to Omaha,” The Dribble Drabble Review, Issue VIII, October 2023 (Best Microfiction nominee)

“Self-Portrait as a Root Vegetable,” Unbroken Journal, Fall 2023

“Truth or Dare with the Dead Girl,” Ghost Parachute, September 2023

“Advice from My Dead Grandmother: a Postcard,” Bright Flash Literary Review, August 3, 2023

“Why Jessie Was Turned Down by the D.A.R. (1916),”  Does It Have Pockets?, July 2023

“1969,” in Scratching the Sands: National Flash Fiction Day Anthology, 2023; and forthcoming in the Lascaux Review

“After Eight,” “Big Jack,” (Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist 2024) and “Summerghost,”  Flash Boulevard, April 1, 2023

“Red Vision,” HAD, March 30, 2023

“Where I’ll Find You,” Moon City Review, 2023

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PUBLICATIONS – 2022

“Passerine,” in Dandelion Years (Bath Flash Fiction Anthology), 2022

“Debts You Haven’t Paid,” Trampset, December 9, 2022

“I’ll Be Your Mirror,” The Disappointed Housewife, December 6, 2022

“You Can Call Me Trilby,” Ghost Parachute, December 1, 2022

“Dial-Up Days,” SugarSugarSalt, November 2022

“Not a Johnny Cash Song,” Twin Pies Literary, October 31, 2022

“Reeling,” Unbroken Journal, Issue 35, October 2022

“Upside Down,”  Five South, Issue 5, September 2022

“Little Runaway,” Milk Candy Review, August 25, 2022

“Five Things I Remember from the Anthropocene Age” and “Oregon Trail,” MacQueen’s Quinterly, Issue 14 (August 2022)

“Castaways,” 10 by 10 Flash Fiction, Issue No. 2 (2022)

“Mother-Daughter,” Best Microfiction 2022, Edited by Meg Pokrass and Gary Finke, Guest Editor: Tania Hershman. Published July 2022, Pelekinesis Press.

“Letter from a Seventh Wife,” Flash Flood, June 18, 2022

“Exterminating Angel,” Flash Fiction Magazine, First Prize, May 25, 2022 (Wigleaf longlist, 2023)

“Cooking Tips for the Demon-Haunted,” Ekphrastic Review, May 13, 2022

“The Lotus Lounge (Colorado Springs, 1921),” Ellipsis Zine no. 11, In the Belly of the Whale, Spring 2022

“Sororal,” Fictive Dream, February 26, 2022

“Duel,” 3 Elements Review, Issue No. 33, Winter 2022

“Heat,” Emerge Literary Journal, Issue No. 21, February 2022

“The Migration of Marion Crane,” Bending Genres, Issue No. 25, February 2022

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PUBLICATIONS – 2021

“Matchsticks,” Emrys Journal, Vol. 38, 2021

“A Vocabulary for the Haunted,” No Contact, Issue 25 (October 2021)

“How I Learned to Read,” Flash Fiction Magazine, Second Prize, October 20, 2021

“The Day the Women Walked Away from Alabama,” reprinted in Stone Gathering, Fall 2021

“Telethon,” Flash Frog, August 23, 2021

“Library of the Apocalypse,” 100 Word Story, July 2021

“Roadrunners” in Best Microfiction 2021, Edited by Meg Pokrass and Gary Finke, Guest Editor: Amber Sparks. Published July 2021, Pelekinesis Press.

“Poor Monster,” Flash Flood, June 26, 2021

“Layover,” Gone Lawn, No. 41, Summer Solstice, 2021

“What John Remembers,” (mac)ro(mic), June 16, 2021

“Mother-Daughter,” Monkeybicycle, June 11, 2021

“Storm Crows,” Ghost Parachute, May 1, 2021

“Dear Sister,” 101 Words, March 17, 2021

“Booboo,” Cease, Cows, February 25, 2021

Four stories from “All I’ll Carry,” Atticus Review, February 23, 2021

“Fire Season,” New World Writing, February 6, 2021

Three Summer Stories: “Bodies in Motion,” “Petrichor,” and “Warm on the Vine,” Flash Boulevard, February 6, 2021

“A Brief Catalog of Venial Sins,” Pithead Chapel, Vol, 10, Issue 2, Feb. 1, 2021 (Wigleaf longlist, 2022)

“Three Pictures of My Father That Survived the Great Divorce Purge of 1977,” Lascaux Review, Vol. 7, 2021 (2019 Lascaux Prize in Flash Fiction finalist)

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PUBLICATIONS – 2020

“Road Runners,” Milk Candy Review, November 12, 2020

“Seeing the Sights,” The Ekphrastic Review, November 12, 2020

“Snow Day,” No Contact (Runner-up, No Contest), November 7, 2020

“Skywalkers,” The Phare, November 5, 2020

“El Rancho Divorce-o,” Wigleaf, September 16, 2020

“Coffin Bell,” Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, August 25, 2020

“Slip” and “War Bride,” MacQueen’s Quinterly, July 2020

“Historic Preservation,” “Moscow Circus,” and “Why I Got Written Up by the Manager at Uncle Earl’s World Famous Bar-B-Q,” in Best Microfiction 2020, Edited by Meg Pokrass and Gary Finke, Guest Editor: Michael Martone

“Paul’s Room,” The Write-In (National Flash Fiction Day), June 7, 2020

“Church on the Hill,” The Write-In (National Flash Fiction Day), June 7, 2020

“Follow It Down,” Flash Flood, June 6, 2020

“Devil’s Breath,” 100 Word Story, May 24, 2020

“Knock,” Women’s Studies Quarterly, May 2020

“After Wings of Desire,” Milk Candy Review, April 23, 2020

“Attachment Theory,” trampset, March 31, 2020

“Upstairs, Downstairs,” Ilanot Review, Vol. 19: Home/Work, Winter 2020

“The Artist Poses his Muse Before a Goldfish Bowl,” New Flash Fiction Review, March 7, 2020

“What the Selkies Know,” Atlas and Alice, February 24, 2020

“In the Time of Climate Change,” X–R-A-Y Literary Magazine, February 8, 2020

“In the Shadow of Their Wings,” Ligeia Magazine, Winter 2019

“Mary’s Dress Waves,” Large Hearted Boy, Flash Dancers/Ekphrastic Singles Series, No. 1, February 6, 2020

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PUBLICATIONS – 2019 & EARLIER

“Halo,” MacQueen’s Quinterly, December 31, 2019

“Fur,” Okay Donkey, December 20, 2019

“Pinwheeling,” Gingerbread House, November 30, 2019

“The Whole Ball of Wax,” Storgy, November 15, 2019

“Tumble,” Fictive Dream, November 29, 2019

“Split,” Storgy, November 8, 2019

“When Darth Vader Was My Boyfriend,” Storgy, October 25, 2019

“Something from Home,” Lost Balloon, October 23, 2019

“Driving to Endanger,” Bending Genres, October 15, 2019

“Unleaving,” Fiction Southeast, October 2, 2019

“Keeping Gladys Good,” The Sunlight Press, August 6, 2019

“The Bounce Test,” JMWW, July 31, 2019

“Metamorphoses,” Spelk, July 31, 2019

“Jessie: a Pastoral,” The Cabinet of Heed, Issue 22, July 2019

“Long Shadows,” Pithead Chapel, July 2019

“Why I Got Written Up by the Manager at Uncle Earl’s World Famous Bar-B-Q,” 100 Word Story, June 20, 2019

“A Trustworthy Receipt to Fade FRECKELLS, & Other Blemishes of the Skin,
by a Lady of Quality,” Flash Flood, June 15, 2019.

“Jessie’s Life in Three Surnames,” New Flash Fiction Review, Special Feature. June 2019.

“The Day the Women Walked Away from Alabama,” Jellyfish Review, May 23, 2019.

“A Key into the Language of the Dead,” Superstition Review, Issue 23, May 2019.

“Midnight Spoon,” New Flash Fiction Review, Issue 16, March 2019

“Historic Preservation,” The Cabinet of Heed, Issue 18, March 2019

“Warsaw Circus,” Milk Candy Review, February 7, 2019

“Comic Postcard, Early 20th Century: A Meta-Analysis,” Pidgeonholes, January 18, 2019

“Throbbing, Like Gristle,” 3 Elements Review, Issue No. 21, Winter 2019

“So Silent and Still,” Smokelong Quarterly, Issue No. 62, December 2018

“A Girl in the Dark,” Maryland Literary Review, Issue No. 1, December 2018

“The Detective in Youth” in Companion of the Ash, Kate Spitzmiller (bonus flash fiction section). Spider Road Press, 2018.

“Bajo el Techo,” translation of “Under the Ceiling.” Translated by Mariana de Madariaga. In Instantáneas de Ficción: Selección de Microcuentos, María Cecilia de la Vega, ed. Córdoba, Argentina: Susurros Chinos, 2018.

“Unscheduled Stop,” 100 Word Story, October 31, 2018

“Tuna Fish,” Longleaf Review, October 14, 2018

“The Girl Dies at the End,” Monkeybicycle, September 28, 2018

“When God Closes a Door,” Jellyfish Review, September 5, 2018

“Things You Think About When You’re a Girl,” Bending Genres, Issue Four, August 2018

“The Day Before” and “50 Shades of Spry,” Evansville Review, Vol. XXVIII, 2018

“Honolulu Souvenir, 1941,” Spelk, May 11, 2018

“Squeeze Box,” 3 Elements Review, Issue No. 18, Spring 2018

“We the Underserved,” Citron Review, December 21, 2017

“Skater Girl at Rest,” JMWW, November 2017

“Jellies,” Pinball, November 2017

“How to Find Your Way to Black Bread Lake,” Jellyfish Review, October 25, 2017

“Accidentally Like a Luddite,” Atticus Review, October 2, 2017

“Breach,” 3 Elements Review, Issue No. 16, Fall 2017

“Filament,” Blue Fifth Review / Blue Five Notebook Series, Summer 2017

“The Museum of Curiosities,” KYSO Flash, No. 8, August 2017

“Under the Ceiling,” KYSO Flash, No. 8, August 2017

“Path of Stones,” Bracken, Flash Fiction Contest Finalist, July 2017

“Shelby County Courthouse,” r.kv.r.y. Quarterly Literary Journal, Summer 2017

“Jolene, Jolene,” Jellyfish Review, March 17, 2017

“Father of Ash,” ROAR, March 17, 2017

“Orange Crush” and “In the Year of Cabbage Soup,” Reservoir, No. 3, Winter 2017

“Potato Eyes,” 101 Words, January 17, 2017

“Three Grandfathers,” Thrice Fiction, No. 18 (Winter 2016/2017)

“Fuzzy Dice,” in Approaching Footsteps, Patricia Flaherty Pagan, ed. Spider Road Press, 2016

Girls on Film. Vella Chapbook Series. Paper Nautilus Press, 2016

“River of Dreams,” Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, September 27, 2016

“The Last Thing She Wore,” Monkeybicycle, April 29, 2016

“American Blonde (Endless Loop),” Angels Flight Literary West, March 11, 2016

“What a Girl Knows About Trees,” Digging Through the Fat, No. 46, February 10, 2016

“The Light That Failed,” Silver Birch Press, December 7, 2015

“Amaryllis” and “Savasana,” KYSO Flash, Issue 4, Fall 2015

“Boy, Dog,” Saranac Review, No. 11, 2015

“Nick Carraway Contemplates Global Warming,” Silver Birch Press, September 24, 2015

“Underbite,” Silver Birch Press, September 20, 2015

“Bricolage,” Smokelong Quarterly, Issue No. 48, June 2015

“What Daisy Knew,” in The Great Gatsby Anthology. Silver Birch Press, 2015

“Under the Skin,” Goreyesque, Summer 2015

“From A Short History of Black Bread Lake,” Literary Orphans, Issue 17 (Ella), Spring 2015

“With Holden Caulfield in the Panic Room,” The Flexible Persona, Issue 2.3, February 2015

“Happy Meal,” “Wendy and Brian on the Last Night of the World,” and “Penny Postcard, 1902 (No Cancellation),” KYSO Flash, No. 2, Winter 2015

“Dial-Up Days,” Carbon Culture Review, January 2015

“So You Want to Be a Poet,” Litro, January 23, 2015

“Stolen Car” and “Polaroid 1971,” Gravel, December 2014

“Lost in Supermarkets,” NANO Fiction, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2014

“When She Was Smart,” Crab Fat Literary Magazine, October 19, 2014

“Oklahoma 1944: Howard Hughes Spends the Night in Jail,” Foliate Oak, October 2014

“We Decided,” and “Lights Out: Zelda in Highland Hospital,” in Up, Do : Flash Fiction by Women. Spider Road Press, 2014

Who’s the Skirt? Mini Stories. East Greenwich, RI: Origami Poems Project, 2014.

“Seapowet Mills Picnic, Purgatory Lake, 1912,” Press 53 (53-Word Story Contest Winner), July 2014

“Amphibious Rain,” Cape Cod Poetry Review, Winter 2014

“Yvonne in the Eye of Dog,”Cleaver, No. 5, 2013

“Answered Prayers,” Camroc Press Review, June 12, 2013

“Child Star,” Superstition Review, No. 11, 2013

“Girls on Film,” Literary Orphans, No. 6, 2013

“Locavore,” Cleaver, No. 1, 2013

“Ordinary Day, with Spin Art,” Press 53 (53-Word Story Contest Winner), April 2013

“Pinhole,” Short, Fast, and Deadly, Winter 2013

“Continental Breakfast,” Thumbnail, No. 4, 2013

“Poor Town,” Fried Chicken and Coffee, December 2012

“Harvest,” Greenwoman Magazine, No. 3, Summer/Fall 2012

“Short Drawer,” Press 53 (53-Word Story Contest Winner), April 2013

“Winter White,” Metazen, February 2011

“Soon, and for the Rest of Your Life,” decomP, February 2011

It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure.  Harper Perennial, 2010

“Wendy in Rehab,” Northville Review, 2010

“Just Add Water,” Monkeybicycle, March 2010

“Dear Heap,” Foundling Review, “Nights and Nostalgia” Issue, 2010

“Mine,” Stone’s Throw, Spring 2009

“Undeliverable as Addressed,” The Pedestal Magazine, February 2009

“Protection,” Flashquake, Winter 2007

“Platonic,” Cezanne’s Carrot, Winter 2006

Pleasant Drugs: Stories. Minneapolis: Mid-List Press, 2005

“Mr. Lillicrop’s Shining Moment,” TNR/the new renaissance, No. 36 (2004/2005)

“Palm Sunday,” The Pedestal Magazine, September 2004

“Los Gatos Bus,” Artful Dodge, No. 42/43 (Spring 2003)

“Deep Into the Darkness Peering,” Terra Incognita, No. 3 (Spring 2003)

“Cristina’s World,” Quality Women’s Fiction (UK), No. 38 (February/March 2003)

“Pleasant Drugs and Terminal Liquors,” Carve, July 2002

“Convergence,” Bellevue Literary Review, Volume 2, No. 1, Spring 2002

“Three Fatherless Daughters,” Hayden’s Ferry Review, No. 29, Fall/Winter 2001-2002

“The Circus Travels at Night,” 580 Split, No. 3, 2001

“The Virgin of Last Resort,” Margin, October 2001

“December 1999,” Larcom Review, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2001

“Someone You Don’t Remember,” Marrow, November 2000

“How the Light Walks,” Florida Review (Editor’s Award winner),Vol. 25, No. 2, Summer 2000

“The Salvation Café,” Alphabet Faucet: Pocket Prose #1.  Bottom Dog Press, 2000

“Disturbed Furniture,” Minimus, Vol. 9, 2000

“The Car He Drove,” Larcom Review, Vol.1, No. 2, Fall/Winter 1999-2000

“Departure,” Parting Gifts, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1999-2000

“An Old Story,” Pif, September 1999

“In the Land of Mars,” Florida Review, Vol. 24, No. 2, Summer 1999

“Have You Seen Her?” Madison Review, Vol. 20, No. 2, Spring 1999

“The Night Copernicus Died,” Asimov’s Science Fiction, February 1999

“Jenny,” Indigenous Fiction, No. 2, January 1999

“A Girl Drawn from Water,” Newport Review, No. 9, 1998; reprinted in New Digressions, Fall 1998

“Tainted” and “One Percent Milk,” Parting Gifts, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1997

“Cristina in Another Country,” Madison Review (Chris O’Malley Fiction Prize finalist), Vol. 18,

No. 2, Winter 1996; reprinted (in translation) in Les Episodes, (France) Novembre 1997

“Insensates,” Leviathan, Vol. I, 1996; reprinted Quality Women’s Fiction, No. 28, 2000

“Elaine, I Love You,” Seventeen, March 1994