Issue 7
Triumph
Invisible City contributors refuse to be boxed into conventional norms. Their stories push to overcome the complex forces that populate modern society. Their voices are triumphant, defiant, and destined to be heard.
So what happens next?
As Invisible City undergoes an annual change, editors moving out and new editors moving in, we feel optimistic about what the future will bring. We ask that you join us and revel in these possibilities, while we look to uncover and defy the complexities life throws at us all.
Counter productive
My car is parked
but when I pass the sign
that says ‘Slow Down’...
Read the poem →Unspooled
Mulberries grow in deep pockets of my memories. The sepals turned fleshy and purple, tight as brains...
Read the essay →Family Fortunes
Dad’s beat-up white Renault sat at the far end of our little cul-de-sac, one front wheel up on the pavement and the rear end stuck out miles from the curb...
Read the story →The Property Bug
One of the more unfortunate things I inherited from my ex was the desire for homeownership...
Read the essay →Micro-grief in non-linear stages
In an alternate universe
this would be it for me.
Poof, that fork in the road...
Read the poem →Pigeon Down, Oxford Street
It did not bother Claire so much when the dying pigeon lay still, in the middle of the sidewalk, panting, wide‑open eyes darting here and there...
Read the story →Obituary for a Whoremonger
We met at the gentlemen’s club near Times Square with a dark, damp interior that imitated the color and heaviness of a black forest cake...
Read the essay →Trick and Treat
The neighbors two doors down are aliens. From space. We pretend not to know...
Read the story →Lightning Theater
I’ve drawn curtains over the moon, hatched
over stars, fanned out your antlers.
You look like a coat rack. Maybe...
Read the poem →Between Us
I heard Sistah gifted Woama a size XXL tee, graphic anime printed like a schoolgirl’s...
Read the story →Not Your Good Chinese Girl
I swirled a bottle of guava kombucha
touched my ear to the mouth to hear it sing
to hear the bubbles...
Read the poem →Maketh the Man
It was the pants that caught my eye on the way to meet an old friend. Suspended in the boutique window...
Read the story →Minotaur
We couldn’t find the labyrinth, which was maddening because I’d been there before and was convinced we were in the right place. Much of what I’d remembered seemed to have been drained...
Read the essay →The Taste of Slumgullion
Strands of hay whirl away from the truck, wafting
out, down, and over all things, lifted by the
breeze from the rocking motion of the truck...
Read the poem →Mother Vignettes
iii. When we arrived, my mother was already dead...
Read the essay →Communal Consumption
your hot curry breath’s
got me
in such a tither, ready to inhale...
Read the poem →Atmospheric River
I make my coffee in the dark in order to prolong the delicious weight of sleep. The sun will rise soon but for now...
Read the story →Hang Time
I walk our high school track under the noonday sun as young Carter the Punter goes about his ritual in the end zone...
Read the essayIssue 7
Ben Briggs | Editor-in-Chief
Jess Reincke | Production Editor
Eden Julia Sugay | Apprentice Editor-in-Chief
Olivia Berriz | Apprentice Production Editor
Anna Deh | Fiction Editor
Gretchen Lehtonen Hopkins | Fiction Editor
Olivia Berriz | Poetry Editor
Eden Julia Sugay | Poetry Editor
KC Crawford | Nonfiction Editor
Bryce Sears | Assistant Fiction Editor
Jake Yarnold | Assistant Fiction Editor
Erik Johnson | Assistant Nonfiction Editor
Katelynn Williams | Assistant Nonfiction Editor
Dave Madden | Faculty Advisor
Readers: Connie Chen, Lilia Farrell, Alexandria Hutton, Sonya Pendrey, Kristin Jensen, Erin Rex, Virginia Rider, Rosa King, Robin Foster, Caraghan Selfridge, Lucy Weltner, Keana Aiuto, Matthew Choi, Cole Davies, Ben Adams, Johnny Alvarez, Jessica Baer, and Rachel Reyna.