Piker Press — Weekly Journal of Arts and Literature
March 16, 2026

Short Fiction

Short stories published in Piker Press, a weekly journal of arts and literature.

1,823 articles — page 2 of 61


Truth Teller by Michael Braswell

Michael Braswell taught ethics, human relations and peacemaking at East Tennessee State University. Before that he was a prison psychologist. He has published books on justice issues and the spiritual journey as well as four short story collections and two novels.

A Warming World Leaking Sadness by Sreelekha Chatterjee

What will come, will come...

Insomniac Dreams by Deborah Blenkhorn

Time to adopt a cat to sleep on the pillow?

Beneath the Branches of the Kapok by Andrew Westermann

Andrew Westermann lives in St. Louis with his wife and daughter and two too many cats. His fiction explores the edges of consciousness and identity, imagining the strange futures we build when we forget what we used to be.

Don't Stop Dancin' by Seth Coggeshall

Is it always possible to have hope?

Fair as Fresh Air by Mark Nuzzi

Mark Nuzzi lives in New Jersey, enjoying middle age and everything that comes with it. When not in his own universe, he spends time as an aquarium hobbyist, an amateur astronomer, writing stories and feeding the wildlife in the backyard.

Blue Ulysses by Tim Law

There is more joy in living things...

A Birthday Song in Minor by Jerry A. Sierra

What a celebration...!

Brotherly Love by Jim Bates

A way that brothers should be...

Une soirée mémorable by Christine Benton Criswell

Christine Benton Criswell is a writer and physician in San Antonio, Texas. Her hobbies include tai chi, reading, and watching 'Project Runway.'

Fungo Business by William P. Adams

Fungo, a specialized, lightweight, baseball bat used by coaches for training players -- some need it more than most...

Shakti's Essence: Innate and Infinite by Chitra Gopalakrishnan

Music, they say, gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, love to the heart, flight to the imagination, and joy to life: Basundhara baulani, the wandering mystic minstrel's songs do just this and transform the people who listen to them. They are no longer the people they once were. And the baulani is no longer a wayfarer but one of their own.

Humanitarian Mission by James Rumpel

Think before you donate...

The Hippo Wrangler by Arthur Davis

It was --is-- a story needed to be told...

Hanging on Ten by Sreelekha Chatterjee

"Balancing from moment to moment..."

The Festival Stage by Deborah Blenkhorn

Deborah Blenkhorn is a poet, essayist, and storyteller living in the Pacific Northwest. Her work fuses memoir and imagination, and has been featured in over three dozen literary magazines and anthologies.

The Value of Butterflies in a Colorblind World by MJ Skinner

MJ Skinner lives in northeast Ohio. He is married with a three-year-old daughter, and another daughter on the way. His history in the helping professions (law enforcement, counseling, and social work) has provided valuable insight into pain, pleasure, and complexities of the human condition. He currently writes speculative fiction, with a particular focus on horror, dystopian, and science fiction stories.

Where's Levi? by Carl V. Nord

Really, don't mess with this janitor...

The Green Apron by Gregory Smith

The fulfillment of a dream, the fulfillment of a hope...

Singed Wings by Austin Arnold

Austin Arnold is the author of works no one has ever heard of, nor much care to. He spends his time manifesting an outlandish imagination that is overdue for therapeutic intervention. With any luck, one day his imagination will capture even just one reader’s heart the way countless others have captured his.

Neighbors by Mitchell Waldman

If you've got good ones, be very, very glad...

The Perfumer by Mehreen Ahmed

The sweetest scents are compassion and wisdom...

Intervention by Adam Stone

Adam Stone muses gently on the human condition from Annapolis, Maryland.

At the Brink of War by David Bassano

Can you know what goes on behind closed doors?

Nocturnus by Marc Watson

Marc Watson is an author, educator, and father of two residing in Michigan. He spent most of his years in Texas before making a dramatic, life-changing move to Hawaii. There, he taught at an elementary school while simultaneously finding a passion for writing on secluded beaches and in the thick of tropical forests. He became a father and moved once more to Michigan with his growing family, where he now writes under the canopy of maple trees. When his two young children allow him to, of course.

The Apology by Kevin LeCompte

Grief is complex, and must be given time...

Stint by Zary Fekete

Immersed in your work?

A Ticker Tape Tale by Alex Grass

Alex Grass was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He now writes and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three kids.

Occupied by Carl V. Nord

Some jobs are just routine -- until they aren't...

Tweedledum by Steven French

The clues were all there...