Fiction – Michigan Quarterly Review

Fiction

Ditch and Drain

Published in Issue 64.1: Winter 2025 You can purchase our Winter issue here The melting glaciers begat a flood: a colossal lake high in the mountains, held back only by ice. When it gave way, the lake roared down a river valley, eating resistance and carrying rocks the size of young mammoths. The water crashed through […]

Ditch and Drain Read More »

Published in Issue 64.1: Winter 2025 You can purchase our Winter issue here The melting glaciers begat a flood: a colossal lake high in the mountains, held back only by ice. When it gave way, the lake roared down a river valley, eating resistance and carrying rocks the size of young mammoths. The water crashed through

The Ant and the Grasshopper

Published in Issue 64.1: Winter 2025 You can purchase our Winter issue here The evening Amma left us began like all the other evenings of my childhood. I sat at the old dining table with its powder-blue Formica top peeling at the edges, pretending to work on my long division exercises while watching Amma chop snake

The Ant and the Grasshopper Read More »

Published in Issue 64.1: Winter 2025 You can purchase our Winter issue here The evening Amma left us began like all the other evenings of my childhood. I sat at the old dining table with its powder-blue Formica top peeling at the edges, pretending to work on my long division exercises while watching Amma chop snake

My Left Hand, Unholy

Published in Issue 64.1: Winter 2025 You can purchase our Winter issue here Why We Chose It: Michigan Quarterly Review Assistant Editor Hank Hietala on why he recommended “My Left Hand, Unholy” by Sanjana Thakur. When I first read “My Left Hand, Unholy,” I was struck by how the text moves through time. From the second paragraph on, Sanjana

My Left Hand, Unholy Read More »

Published in Issue 64.1: Winter 2025 You can purchase our Winter issue here Why We Chose It: Michigan Quarterly Review Assistant Editor Hank Hietala on why he recommended “My Left Hand, Unholy” by Sanjana Thakur. When I first read “My Left Hand, Unholy,” I was struck by how the text moves through time. From the second paragraph on, Sanjana

The Easy Part

Published in Issue 63.4: Fall 2024 Who wouldn’t want to marry a minor character? said Marcos. And he thought that someone should have written first about Raúl’s rust-colored eyes, or at least have had the urge. They were on the small terrace behind the restaurant, a cement square between three buildings where the coworkers who’d

The Easy Part Read More »

Published in Issue 63.4: Fall 2024 Who wouldn’t want to marry a minor character? said Marcos. And he thought that someone should have written first about Raúl’s rust-colored eyes, or at least have had the urge. They were on the small terrace behind the restaurant, a cement square between three buildings where the coworkers who’d

Ideal Customers

Published in Issue 63.3: Summer 2024 The shoe was too big; it usually was. The customers at Manson’s Menswear were often still acquainting themselves with the quirks of men’s sizing, and they tended to overestimate, trying to will their feet into a more expansive existence. The guy Gemma was serving—short, red-haired, with the same cringing

Ideal Customers Read More »

Published in Issue 63.3: Summer 2024 The shoe was too big; it usually was. The customers at Manson’s Menswear were often still acquainting themselves with the quirks of men’s sizing, and they tended to overestimate, trying to will their feet into a more expansive existence. The guy Gemma was serving—short, red-haired, with the same cringing

lsa logoum logoU-M Privacy StatementAccessibility at U-M