Ben Brindise

JANUARY 2026 ElmwoodBy Dirk Kortz Elmwood was the kind of neighborhood where the homeowners took their garden gnomes and lawn jockeys seriously. I was a renter and didn’t pay much attention to the lawn or garde…

Full story -> Full story -> brilliantflashfiction.com/2026/01/31/j...

Thanks to Brilliant Flash Fiction for publishing Year of the Goblin in their first quarterly of 2026

Find the full story on their site (🔗⬇️)

WEDNESDAY NIGHT LIVE feat multidisciplinary writer & performer Megan Kemple (1/21/26)

Opening up 2026 with stories in Brilliant Flash Fiction and Hawkeye Mag

Find Year of the Goblin 1/31 in BFF & Rabbits 2/23 in HM

I’ll have a story in Brilliant Flash Fiction’s quarterly this January. It’s about losing things and having a really bad year. Your next uplifting read for sure.

Why yes, I am a writing workshop

Congratulations to Ghost Parachute's Pushcart Prize Nominees: @djpoissant.bsky.social, @avitusbcarle.bsky.social, @saralippmann.bsky.social, @megpokrass.bsky.social, @dawnsteffler.bsky.social, and @claudiamonpere.bsky.social.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT LIVE’s feature series has one more showing before the holiday season takes over. We’ll be back 12/10 for Deia Elwadi’s headlining performance.

Shots from Bianca L. McGraw’s feature 11/26

We got out there. Fall’d it up. Big time.

Amber Running in the Family — Ghost Parachute His mother’s knees locked up and he could hear the amber in them crystalizing. Over the years, his ear honed to it. It crackled in her cartilage, growing and reaching to weave into more of her. Sink i...

A new story of mine went up yesterday in Ghost Parachute. Thanks to @brettpribble.bsky.social for finding a spot for it. Check it out if you like stories about living, dying, and Reese’s Peanut Butter cups in the freezer.

ghostparachute.com/issue/septem...

fall sky
sky fall

Same here! One of the best part of pub day.

Thanks to @wildroofjournal.bsky.social for publishing my flash fiction story Bonus Land in their Fall 2025 issue today.

If you like dark comedy about the absurdities of modern economic life, find the full story in the issue.

Looking forward to checking out the Fall issue of @wildroofjournal.bsky.social later this month

It includes my flash fiction story Bonus Land which follows a guy working in collections

I appreciate them taking a chance on this one that gets a little weird

Thinking of one of the best rejections I ever got over a decade ago:

they severely complimented the first story despite not taking it and then said the second story was so bad they couldn’t believe they were both written by the same person

It's almost sweater season... What's up your sleeve?
We are OPEN for submissions for ALL genres!

“We were happy people, and we made the people we passed happy, smiles rippling behind us like wakes. I thought, Why not?”

- Epithalamium, Bill Roorbach

Next Week: WEDNESDAY NIGHT LIVE feat Ten Thousand

Just Buffalo Teaching Artist Ten Thousand, known for his freestyle features, is a five time national poetry slam representative and Buffalo team coach.

Catch his feature at 9pm with an open mic to follow

yesterday we celebrated a friends birthday playing mush ball & today I’m doing back stretches on the living room rug

"The Black Window" by Brett Pribble It hovers in the sky like a baby killer whale. I avoid day light because at night it’s harder to make out, but it’s still unmistakable. Starless and shiny, an obsidian square. It calls to me as I trai...

My story "The Black Window" was published by Roi Fainéant Press: @rfpress.bsky.social.

tinyurl.com/2wyr5ckp

Amber Running in the Family — Ghost Parachute His mother’s knees locked up and he could hear the amber in them crystalizing. Over the years, his ear honed to it. It crackled in her cartilage, growing and reaching to weave into more of her. Sink i...

A new story of mine went up yesterday in Ghost Parachute. Thanks to @brettpribble.bsky.social for finding a spot for it. Check it out if you like stories about living, dying, and Reese’s Peanut Butter cups in the freezer.

ghostparachute.com/issue/septem...

“There are fewer and fewer kids, and they move farther and farther away. Or they take too many trips without ever leaving home.”

Amber Running in the Family — Ghost Parachute His mother’s knees locked up and he could hear the amber in them crystalizing. Over the years, his ear honed to it. It crackled in her cartilage, growing and reaching to weave into more of her. Sink i...

Read "Amber Running in the Family" written by
@benbrindise.bsky.social and illustrated by Brett J Barr.

"Whether it be amber or breast cancer or a lightning strike, the bill always comes due."

tinyurl.com/yc4u4em3

Dino Land by Will Musgrove Unlike the park’s main entrance, the door to the break room doesn’t roar. Instead, the rusty hinges sigh like me easing into my La-Z-Boy. I step inside and see manager Julie spreading a Stegosaurus…

I have a new story set in a dinosaur theme park up at @flashfrog.bsky.social today. Thanks to @ericscottryon.bsky.social for giving this one such an awesome home. And I love Jayne Frisina's art. Check it out if you wanna. 🦕 🦖

flash-frog.com/2025/09/01/d...

The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest 2025 - SmokeLong Quarterly The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest (The Mikey) is now an annual competition celebrating and compensating the best micro fiction and nonfiction online. The grand prize winner of The Mikey is automatical...

Previously published or unpublished, fiction or nonfiction (or anything in between), 250 words or fewer, deadline Nov 15. The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest. www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...

living the dream

(the dream in this case being publishing stories & driving around New England)

Sometimes I name characters in stories after family members for fun — why not, ya know?

Unlike cousin Jimmy in White Elephant (Hooghly Review, 2025) my cousin Jimmy is a great guy & we celebrated his wedding last weekend in Cleveland

Tonight’s the night! Poetry open mic at Caffe Aroma. It will be headined by Charlotte, NC Poet Laureate Jay Ward. The fun starts at 9pm sharp.

At 6pm Jay will be running a poetry workshop at the caffe at Amy's , which is free and open to all. Hope to see you at one or both

Tomorrow Charlotte, NC Poet Laureate Jay Ward hits Buffalo for a workshop & feature set

Workshop: 6pm - Caffe at Amy’s
Feature: 9pm - Caffe Aroma

Who can read the world?