Unlikely Stories

Presenting Episode 90 of A Sardine on Vacation, “The Reckoning,” in which we learn about fictional characters, decaying identities, and knowing who you are at www.unlikelystories.org/content/the-... #smallpress #litmag

front cover of "I Want to Be Your Radio" by Sheila E. Murphy. The cover features an antique mirrored radio.

Now now NOW! “I Want to Be Your Radio,” the new 104-page book of poetry by that grandmaster of musicality, Sheila E. Murphy, is available at Bookshop.org and Amazon! Learn all about it at www.unlikelystories.org/unlikely-boo... ! Contact me if you'd like a review copy!

Thank you!

At Unlikely Stories dot org, we are proud to be bad luck.

Lit Balm: A Tribute to Larry Sawyer YouTube video by Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series

Lovely and brilliant poets! Did you see yesterday's episode of Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series, featuring a tribute to Larry Sawyer? It's up on the YouTubes now at youtu.be/w9DkboufUg4

Donate to Help Rosalyn and Baby After Complications, organized by Jonathan Penton On January 9, during what was supposed to be a routine obstetrician’s visit,… Jonathan Penton needs your support for Help Rosalyn and Baby After Complications

My spouse and I had an unbelievably unexpected child. He was born January 14, and is thriving. Unfortunately, my wife is having difficulty, and we're racking up medical bills while our income diminishes. Can you help? gofund.me/0ab39d0c3

Off-Site Events Join AWP's literary community for the following off-site events, hosted throughout the Baltimore, Maryland area during our conference.

Today’s the last day to explore Charm City! Find the 180+ off-site events taking place all over Baltimore and virtually!

Believable Fictions: A Poetry and Prose Reading Afternoon. See https://www.facebook.com/events/25882561951397987 for more info.

Are you ready for tomorrow? www.facebook.com/events/25882... #AWP26 #AWP2026

IT'S COMING! #AWP26 www.facebook.com/events/74873...

TOMORROW MORNING at 10:35am, Baltimore time! Join us for our #AWP26 panel, “More than Memory: The Art of Jewish Storytelling in Creative Nonfiction.” Jessie Askinazi, Michael Ian Black, Hannah Cohen, Kenning JP García, and yours truly! Room 314, Level 300, at the Baltimore Convention Center!

TOMORROW MORNING at 10:35am, Baltimore time! Join us for our #AWP26 panel, “More than Memory: The Art of Jewish Storytelling in Creative Nonfiction.” Jessie Askinazi, Michael Ian Black, Hannah Cohen, Kenning JP García, and yours truly! Room 314, Level 300, at the Baltimore Convention Center!

WONDERFUL PEOPLE! Are you in New Orleans Sunday night? Would you like to hear me and some far superior writers read their prose? Come to Bar Redux at 9pm and behold our wit! www.facebook.com/events/91022...

NO FEE submission call + editor interview – Unlikely Stories Six, DEADLINE: Always Open Unlikely Stories Six is the latest incarnation of the electronic magazine, Unlikely Stories, which has been published on the Web, more-or-less continually, since 1998. This incarnation premiered in…

The amazing @trishhopkinsonpoet.bsky.social interviewed me about Unlikely Stories Six! I said words! I sounded pretentious! You should read it, because you like that sort of thing! trishhopkinson.com/2026/03/02/n...

NO FEE submission call + editor interview – Unlikely Stories Six, DEADLINE: Always Open Unlikely Stories Six is the latest incarnation of the electronic magazine, Unlikely Stories, which has been published on the Web, more-or-less continually, since 1998. This incarnation premiered in…

Unlikely Stories Six @unlikely-stories.bsky.social is always open for no fee submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction, visual art, music, films, etc. For more information, see my interview with editor Jonathan Penton with a link to submission guidelines below. buff.ly/SGjE1e7

For tons of information on Unlikely involvement in #AWP26, check out https://unlikelystories.org/unlikely-times-at-awp26

For tons of information on Unlikely involvement in #AWP26, check out unlikelystories.org/unlikely-tim...

Lit Balm: Jamey Jones, Janet Hamill, Dennis Nurkse, and Maureen Owen YouTube video by Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series

Forgive me, for I'm just now getting around to putting the January 10 episode of Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series up on the YouTubes. Watch it now, and if you're not going to the AWP, get ready for our March 7 show! youtu.be/GRPYnJtThQU

Three poems up at Unlikely Stories.

www.unlikelystories.org/content/basi...

Got up, made breakfast, drank coffee, advertised my book and noticed we are at war

If you'd prefer to view it on the Unlikely Stories web site, it's at www.unlikelystories.org/content/a-li... ! I don't see what difference it makes!

Book Release Party for "A Limited Number of Miracles" YouTube video by Jonathan Penton

I've finally edited the footage from the Novmeber 18 book release party of "A Limited Number of MIracles" by yours truly and published by Lavender Ink! It all happened at Bar Redux in New Orleans, and you can check it out at youtu.be/S-m_tH7tAaY?... #poetry #bookrelease #neworleans #nola

It’s been a very long time since Richard Jeffrey Newman was in the pages of Unlikely Stories, so we’re thrilled that he’s back with three poems on grooves of pleasure, pain hunting you down, and making it up as you go along at www.unlikelystories.org/content/maki... #poetry #litmag #smallpress

We have lost a decade of our life to an evil idiot…a dolt. A moron. One of the most racist and dumbest humans on the planet.

10 years.

After many years, Leonore Wilson is back in the pages of Unlikely Stories, with two poems on turbid waters, shuddering blood, and bodies in the jimson weed at www.unlikelystories.org/content/fire... #poetry #litmag #smallpress

Thanks again to Unlikely Stories for hosting the piece, and for coming up with a much better short description for it than I could.

Also, check out their vast collection of other great fiction and poetry. They’ve brought great writing to the web for a long time.

Meet Michael Somes, who brings us his short story “Jerome Takes Control” on a building that films its tenants, the watchmen who aren’t allowed to watch them, and the nature of revenge at www.unlikelystories.org/content/jero... #fiction #smallpress #litmag

Rest in Poetry, Larry Jaffe.

Peter Cherches is back with “Photo Shoot Day,” a piece of flash fiction on clip-on ties, yearning fantasies, and how to be a guttersnipe at www.unlikelystories.org/content/phot... #fiction #smallpress #litmag

X Really Is Pulling Users to the Right Elites may not be as immune to this kind of algorithmic radicalization as they think.

You can explain a lot of the shift towards blatant transphobia by the centrist political class from them remaining on Twitter after Elon bought it. It's one of his singular missions to destroy the trans community to get back at his daughter Vivian.

nymag.com/intelligence...

Unlikely Staff Reviewer dan raphael is back, with a short analysis of "Signs Preceding the End of the World,” a 2015 novel by Yuri Herrera trans. Lisa Dillman featuring the Rio Grande as the River Styx at www.unlikelystories.org/content/a-re... #smallpress #litmag #bookreview

Please welcome Jimmy Crouse, who brings us an excerpt from his “poem” “Portrait of a Depiction,” an incredibly abstract piece of non-information. Check out the text and audio of his work at www.unlikelystories.org/content/port... #poetry #spokenword #smallpress #litmag

Longstanding Unlikely compatriot Peter Marra is back, with two poems on catatonic schizophrenics, delicious megalomaniac textures, and evil dolls at www.unlikelystories.org/content/case... #poetry #smallpress #litmag