Onset

Finalist, Mississippi Review Fiction Prize 2026

“My sister swims naked a few yards from shore. She’s angry with me. We’ve already come this far, she says with every stroke. No one will care. She’s left her clothes in a pile on top of our packs, a cairn of technical gear perched atop what’s left of our father; an accidental memorial. The gray bits of ash are tucked into an old Folgers can, the teeth and flecks of bone wedged between extra socks and granola bars.”

Read the rest at Mississippi Review.