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Tag: fiction

  • Orion’s Belt Interview: Audrey Zhou (July 2024)

    Sara Omer: In “Five Stages of Shedding a Skin,” Ming grieves her old memories as she prepares for a new life at the hands of the enigmatic Tailor, who will help her shed her old skin like a snake. What inspired this story? Audrey Zhou: This story started with an idea I had nearly a…

  • Orion’s Belt Year-End 2023 Anthology

    Patrons only receive our year-three compilation for free! Enjoy!  The lyrical and ethereal works we published in 2023 synthesize intimate examinations of individuals and relationships with expansive and philosophical scenarios. With a literary focus on the specific and subtle details of life, they reach toward wonder and strangeness. Comfort and complacency disintegrate to reveal mysterious…

  • Suddenly, I Remember Camelot

    Did I want another cup of tea? my mother asks, rising awkwardly from her chair. I shake my head and wave my half-eaten biscuit at her over my half-drunk mug. She settles back down into her chair but starts twiddling her thumbs. I swallow quickly and scoot over to her, phone in hand, encouraging her…

  • This Body is a Grave

    From the depths of my core to the moons in my sky, I am dead—let me stay like that. Dead or drowning in corpses, the difference is pointless after a while. I grieve them; I devour those who try to fill the holes they left behind. My beloved children, my removed limbs, the fire I…

  • Caring for a Picky Eater During the Apocalypse

    1. Know Your Picky Eater’s Food Favorites and Keep Them in Mind When Planning Meals. On your first date, only eight months ago, Sara told you she spent a summer as a vegetarian, by which she meant she would eat dessert three times a day. Twinkies, she’d said, were her number one go-to fave, dinner…

  • The Ramparts, as Cold and Implacable as Love

    I remember the first time I saw you riding across the plain towards my castle walls. Your pennant flew behind you, a red phoenix on a black field, the matching crimson plume of your helm rippling in the wind. Your armies gathered at your back. Watching from the ramparts, I knew you were a foe…

  • A Catalog for the End of Humanity

    Emmeline was allowed to pick from three “archetype” versions of herself, much like how she might have chosen a home-droid from a catalog. The ones best representing her were projected up onto the platform—her whole life and fears and experiences filtered down to ones and zeroes, color-coded and bullet-pointed with all the best features of…

  • An Open Letter to Bakers

    I think apologies to you every morning when I take loaves of wheat bread out of the oven, cool them on big metal racks, and glance over every so often to see if they’ve gone missing. When that happens, there is more cash in the register. I smile sadly when the bread has disappeared and…