That’s all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones.
-Raymond Carver
The Stories
All of our published stories are available to read for free online because we believe that honest fiction shouldn’t disappear into obscurity. As long as we’re here, the stories are here. You can also comment on and share any story using your Facebook, Twitter, Google, email or other login. (Your email is never shared.)
You can help support Carve and our mission of free fiction by purchasing our annual Anthology through Kindle, iBooks, or in paperback. Because even though they’re free online, it’s nice to take them wherever you go.
Current Issue:
;)
Spring 2012 - Esoteric Awards (LGBT Theme)
Chlorine Mermaid by Rachel Steiger-Meister
Angels by Jennifer Pashley
What You Miss by Sarah Terez Rosenblum
The Exhausted Pose by Jeremy Garrett
Photography Winner: Karen Shacham
2011
;)
Cover: Katrina Pallop
Winter
Word Booth by Michael Landau
Coward by John Henry Fleming
Demetrius by Kem Joy Ukwu
;)
Cover: Andy Fox
Fall - Raymond Carver short story contest
1st Place | Stalled Symphony by Liesl Wilke
2nd Place | Credo by Bridget Brewer
3rd Place | Promises, Promises by Susan Finch
Editor’s Choice: Matthew | Motherlove by Mark Farrington
Editor’s Choice: Kristin | Whiskey & Ribbons by Leesa Cross-Smith
Honorable Mention | The Mattress Boy of Cameroon by Kate Jackson
Honorable Mention | Oregon Grind by Rick Attig
Honorable Mention | The English Speakers by Sarah Quigley
Honorable Mention | What Happy Couples Do by Anna Cox
;)
Cover: Michael Tedesco
Summer
And They Pillaged the Dead by David Cameron
Some of Us Can Leave by Sara Schaff
Truth Poker by Mark Brazaitis
;)
Cover: Quinn Franklin
Spring
Here/Now by Frances Clow
Schadenfreude by Melanie Kokolios
The Time of Plenty by Judith Slater
2009/2010
;)
Cover: Cassandra Rood
Winter 2010 - Raymond Carver short story contest
1st Place | The White Rabbit by Maire Cooney
2nd Place | Unpracticed Altitudes by Shaun Hamill
3rd Place | When You Cross the Border by Molly Greeley
Editor’s Choice | It Was So Long Ago by Amber Krieger
;)
Cover: Moonlight Unlimited
Fall 2010
Bleeding in the Belly by Emily Gill
Dirty Darlene by Sarah Kate Levy
MG Repairs by Sam Gridley
Carve was on hiatus between Fall 2009-Summer 2010 and did not publish new issues.
;)
Cover: Emily Rusk
Summer 2009 - Raymond Carver short story contest
1st Place | What You’ve Done For Me by John S. Walker
2nd Place | At the Last Minute by Martha Miller
3rd Place | Zero Pressure by Soma Mei Sheng Frazier
Editor’s Choice | How the Tiger Got Its Stripes by Nicholas Hogg
;)
Cover: Jon Kersey
Spring 2009
Weather Girls by Marylou Fusco
Poetry by Dionne Irving
2008
;)
Cover: Yvonne Garcia
Winter
One Way to Cook an Eel by Emily Bromfield
Horses by Stacy Elaine Dacheux
The Dead Kid by Gillian King
The Candy House of Roscoe, New York by Meagan Cass
;)
Cover: Matthew Schniper
Fall - Raymond Carver short story contest
1st Place | The Last Hours of Pompeii by Marc Nieson
2nd Place | Mourning the Departed by Annette L. Binder
3rd Place | Used to Be by Elizabeth Baines
Editor’s Choice | Cooling by Julie Eill
Editor’s Choice | Limits by Sung J. Woo
;)
Cover: Kristan Taylor
Summer
The Seagull by Rhea DeRose-Weiss
Indelible Ink by Elizabeth Corcoran
;)
Cover: Lafayette Wattles
Spring
Reward Poster by Cody McCafferty
Wall by Danielle Davis
A Dying Mother by Kelly Lundgren Pietrucha
Customer of Size by Mary Jones
Chicago Monologue by Eugene Chang
2007
;)
Cover: Melanie Graves
Winter - Raymond Carver short story contest
Agashi by AC Koch
Summit by Julia Gordon-Bramer
One Hundred Santas by Liz Skillman
The Ways You Are Gone by Kami Westhoff
Different Than Any Day So Far by Marc Phillips
;)
Cover: Melanie Graves
Fall
This One Thing by Jaren Watson
When My Body Smashed Into the Sidewalk by Yuvi Zalkow
Weekend With the Boy by Ezra
;)
Cover: Matthew Limpede
Summer
If You Don’t by Rob Bass
Turning the Bones by Marcy Campbell
Hybrid by Stephanie Dickinson
Samurai Bluegrass by Craig Terlson
;)
Cover: Matthew Limpede
Spring
When Snow Falls On Atlantic City by Nate House
Drinking in the Loons by Stephen MacKinnon
In His Own Image by Alyssa Morris
Think Engineering by Mike Schiavone
The First Fire by David Stoler
What happened to the rest of the stories?
In 2007 when the founding editor Melvin Sterne handed over operations to Matthew Limpede, there was a glitch and a hard drive meltdown, and electronic copies of the stories were lost. Paper copies still remain (authors may contact the editor if they need a copy), however there are no plans to transfer the paper copies into electronic versions again.
The only exception is the stories from 2006 which are still in the original electronic version and are being converted. They should be available in June this year.
Until then, a table of contents for each issue is avaiable for stories published from 2000-2006.
2006
November / Volume VII Issue VI
Trashy Desires of Women Nearing Fifty by Xu Xi
Summer’s Over by Mary Winsor
Awash in Love by Jane Buchan
Healing Waters by Dorene O’Brien
Under Libby’s Bonnet by Elizabeth K. Severn
The B-63 by Thomas Lisenbee
The Weighing of the Heart by James W. Brown
Rain by Wayne L. Price
Yum Yum Git You Some by Dustin Wells
The Naming of Mountains by W.J.Wilkinson
September / Volume VII Issue V
In the Old World by Robert F. James
Titties by Kay Sexton
Save Your Breath by Rick Hill
Egalite by Gustavo Bondoni
There Was Wayne by Aaron Hellem
She Had a Way With Plants by Karin Falcone
Comprehension by Man Martin
Rope by Adam Cushman
Ko Phuket by John C. Sakellar
Wiffle by Eric Vrooman
Afterwards by Laurie Mazzaferro
Dangerous Story by David Watts
July / Volume VII Issue IV
Ambush by Mark Tonsetic
Anne and Morgana, Rose and Pierre
by Patricia Gilmartin Patterson
Blue Devil by Brad Koski
Losing Control by Penny Feeny
Mandy by Susan R. Thornton
A Simplified Map of the Real World by Steven Allred
Pearl by M.A. Leighton
Temporary Assistant Professor of English by William Ryderr
Silent Witness by Jay Boyer
Tips by Mike Lubow
Chasing the Vixen by Alex Keegan
The Wager by Allison Barrett
May / Volume VII Issue III - Carver Awards Edition
The Understory by Tim Horvath
Notebook 366 by Michael Horner
The Taj Mahal by Jim Thomson
Western Union by Charles McLeod
The Galician by Linda M. Rodriguez Guglielmoni
Bridge by Eric Vrooman
In Zugzwang by S. Frederic Liss
All Songs Singing by Therese Stanton
A Summer Tale by Leslee Becker
How to Be Sure You Want to Be a Farm Girl by Catherine Elcik
A Map of the Area by Emily Franklin
City of Mr. Jiang by Louis Malloy
March / Volume VII Issue II
Miss Molly by Judy Crozier
Crash by Michele Melnick
Trespass by Judy Wilson
Associations by Chris Przybyszewski
Exit Strategies by Richard Peabody
Separated by Gail Chehab
Lousy Tee by Ken Pisani
SGGG by Kathy Karlson
Bicycle Riding by Zdravka Evtimovw
The Birthday Knife by Sean Gallagher
Janaki by Vijay Lakshmi
For Days on End by Jeff Tannen
Devil’s Gorge by Don Lowe
January / Volume VII Issue I
After Party by R.J. Comer
National Remnants Co. by Mark Esrig
Security by Sean Hoade
The Silent Treatment by Stephanie Reents
You People by Linda Dhavan
Jayne With a Y by Steve McBrearty
One Small Step by Susan Dugan
In The Kingdom by Rosemary Berkeley
A Red Chair for Sleeping by E. Echararria
Ian’s Fortune by Shelly Massanoble
The Life Coach by Mike Markel
Missionaries by J.E. Ogle
Her World by Caroline Kepnes
The Squirrel and the Crow by Lee Sterne
Table of Contents of Stories Published 2000-2005.