This volume of The Conium Review features eight new stories from Joe Aguirre, Jenny Wu, Debbie Graber, Caroljean Gavin, Charles Conley, Alison Foster, Jasmine Sawers, and Rachel Brittain. Readers will find three darkly funny variants on a devil's bargain, two cursed moonshiner sisters, and one sprawling list of rodent qualities as compiled by an ex-boyfriend. Throughout the volume, tales of regret, reflection, and vindication pull readers into several absurdist worlds and inventive narrative structures.
This volume includes "Three Riffs for the Devil," by Joe Aguirre, winner of The Conium Review's 2019 Innovative Short Fiction Contest. The contest was judged by Sarah Gerard, author of Sunshine State and Binary Star. Sarah says "'Three Riffs for the Devil' is a confident, pitch-perfect satire of getting what you ask for, with winking jewels of dark wisdom. Sharp and original, it pokes at the reader's ribs, sticks its fingers into our weak points, asking, 'What's your own vice? In what form will the devil come for you?' Maybe he already has."
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