amber noelle sparks

I have a new short story up over at one of my favorite print and online mags, Monkeybicycle. I’m flattered and super excited that it’s over there right now.

The story is called “Four Feet Eleven Inches.” Here’s just a taste:

Senior year comes and he still hasn’t grown. His mother’s dragged him to a few different doctors. They all say the same thing: He’ll certainly shoot right up his first year of college. He is tired of thinking of himself as a dormant plant.

Read the rest over here.

“How to Dispose of a Chorus Girl,” up at the Midway Journal today.

Every month it seems like these two fine journals go live at the same time, and I spend a good portion of the next day devouring both. So it’s kind of incredibly awesome that I have a story in both PANK’s and The Collagist’s February issue, both of which are just up today.

My story in The Collagist, “Feral Children: A Collective History,” is the first published piece from a collection-in-progress of fiction writing on tropes and figures from myth and legend. But don’t just read my story. As usual, every single thing in this issue is fantastic, including stories from M.T. Fallon and Mark Doten, and novel excerpts from Lily Hoang and Kate Zambreno. (I had no idea Lily had a novel coming out–this is very exciting news-to-me.)

Over at PANK, meanwhile, a new online issue has just gone up as well, with my story “Storage Space” in the mix. This story is based, very loosely, on a truer story. Not true, but truish. Anyhow. Read it and then read all the rest of the wonderful writers featured, like CL Bledsoe, Eric Burke, Alan Stewart Carl, Joseph Celizic, Katharine Coles, Ori Fienberg (I rave about him in my last post!), Elisa Gabbert and Kathleen Rooney, Emilie Lindemann, Kimberly Lojewski , Corey Mesler, Christopher Ryan, Erik Smetana, Charles Dodd White and Maya Jewell Zeller. Yowza.

And thank you so much to Matt Bell and Roxane Gay for the chance to appear in these amazing journals alongside so many great writers.

Hey, all. Head over to decomP when you get a chance and check out their newly designed website–it’s pretty good-lookin’.

Then read the stories in the newest issue, including a piece by yours truly called “When Other People’s Lives Fall Into Your Lap.”

So, there’s this been-around-a-little-while-but-just-revamped-and-even-more-awesome literary magazine called Titular. Here’s the premise: each author’s story starts with the title of a film, television show, or novel. Then the story branches out from there into something else entirely. It’s a very cool idea, no?

My story is here. Can you guess which heartwarming film the title is taken from? (Hint: it’s pictured above.)