Short Story Collection

Explore our annual series of short stories and personal essays written by and for queer people of color.

New 2023 stories biweekly!

Short Story Collection 2023

Featured
The River
Audrey Kuo
The River
Audrey Kuo

2023 Short Story Collection Collection by Audrey Kuo - “The River”

She is simply herself, always flowing and rushing, carrying along whatever we offer her, pulling it away and down the river, to another part of herself where she takes and smashes and destroys, reminding us that everything terrible cannot last forever.

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Audrey Kuo
obligation
Joré Aaron
obligation
Joré Aaron

2023 Short Story Collection Collection by Joré Aaron - “obligation”

And healing, we also learn, might mean realizing that the bitterness that formed in the back of your gritted teeth during the angst of your teenage years may have been completely justified, and that your parents indeed had some answering to do.

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Joré Aaron
Where Green Grass Doesn’t Grow
Selena Razack
Where Green Grass Doesn’t Grow
Selena Razack

2023 Q26 Short Story Collection Selection by Selena Razack - “Where The Green Grass Doesn’t Grow”

I catch myself when I dream I’d be back there again, turning sticks and stones, right when I stood over you, hoping green grass would grow.

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Selena Razack
Mother
Scotty Escobar
Mother
Scotty Escobar

2023 Short Story Collection Selection by Scotty Escobar - “Mother”

When she said, “I’m sorry for everything,” I had an idea of what she meant. Sorry for being a smoker. Sorry for being an alcoholic. Sorry for neglecting you. Sorry for abusing you.

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Scotty Escobar
If I Die: A Black Trans Request
Codi Charles
If I Die: A Black Trans Request
Codi Charles

2023 Q26 Short Story Collection Selection by Codi Charles - “If I Die: A Black Trans Request”

If I die, i do not want to be memorialized. i do not want to be undesirable and despised in my living only to be lessened and capitalized off of in my death.

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Codi Charles

Short Story Collection 2022

Featured
Empath
Scotty Escobar
Empath
Scotty Escobar

“Come on, don’t say that.” 

“I don’t care half as much as he does. He deserves someone who isn’t like me.” “You’ll hurt him if you leave.” 

“And I’ll hurt him if I stay.”

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Scotty Escobar
a banal and complex essay on coming out
Olivia Lapeyrolerie
a banal and complex essay on coming out
Olivia Lapeyrolerie

If the advent of my queerness and I were in a relationship, the status would squarely be that “it’s complicated.” The non-conformist in me quite frankly feels a bit square even when I say I have a coming out tale to tell. But, when in a capitalist, patriarchal hell, do as the other hellions do…

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Olivia Lapeyrolerie
The Coffee Shop Near The Train Tracks
Stephanie Mata
The Coffee Shop Near The Train Tracks
Stephanie Mata

That place is stained with memories of you and I love it, but it hurts. I  sit here at a bar in the middle of the night across from the coffee shop by  the train tracks with friends, their conversation starting to pull me back.

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Stephanie Mata
¿Y cuándo vuelves?
Ginna Diaz
¿Y cuándo vuelves?
Ginna Diaz

Many years ago, when I could no longer keep in what I needed to say, I came out to my grandma. After she hugged me, one of the first things she said was, “Tu tía Maira Luisa también es como tú.”

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Ginna Diaz
The Meaning Of Life Is That It Stops
Selena Razack
The Meaning Of Life Is That It Stops
Selena Razack

Sticking together as siblings, as a unit, meant a greater chance of survival, my dad would tell me.  Our grandparents took us in, and so did my aunts and uncles. My grandma was the first mother I ever knew and ensured our survival. 

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Selena Razack
Featured
First Gen (Excerpt)
Toni Cross
First Gen (Excerpt)
Toni Cross

He shook his head and stared at his drink. They fell silent again, both wrapped up in their own thoughts. She wondered if he had secretly been a homophobe this whole time. He wasn’t sure how vulnerable he felt like getting right now. A waiter asked if they needed to be topped up, but they didn’t hear. The tension was unbearable. 

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Toni Cross
i do not remember my roots
Kaylin Moss
i do not remember my roots
Kaylin Moss

Mommy, I want a relaxer, you said. You did want one, your desire was genuine. You listened to their lies and deceived yourself. Later, you would learn, you just wanted the words to stop. Beauty hurts, but assimilation sears.

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Kaylin Moss
(God, don’t––)
CeCe Heard
(God, don’t––)
CeCe Heard

What if I panic and let my anxiety take over and I shake things up in a desperate attempt to please her but my chaotic good turns to chaotic evil and tremors too violent pass through and everything we had falls through the cracks as our shared world splits back in twoTried to stop the hurt innumerable (∞) times but it keeps getting worse

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CeCe Heard
Safe Space Asado De Boda by Antonio Viramontes
Antonio Viramontes
Safe Space Asado De Boda by Antonio Viramontes
Antonio Viramontes

The year was 1988, it was a particularly foggy morning in mid-late October; the kind of morning where you could smell the grass and taste the dirt simply by opening the front door. The fiestas honoring the patron saint of El Cargadero, a small rancho in the mountains of Zacatecas Mexico, were just a few days away; the crisp air had that wonderful feeling of eagerness and anxiety.

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Antonio Viramontes
Besties
Moriah Katz
Besties
Moriah Katz

Her stitches look like letters on her mouth, and I wonder if it hurts to talk about the versions of ourselves we left in our mothers’ photo albums. I think I liked her more before the gold teeth and the fade, before we both came out and had to start fighting about the girls I’m dating who aren’t her.

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Moriah Katz

Short Story Collection 2021