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Portrait of Kathy Acker by Michel Delsol

Fiction Online

Triptych from “Stripper Disintegration”

By Kathy Acker

this is a narration ha ha the end of the world the end of the world after after the after who after all the world is you I do an after suck my ass

Acrylic painting by Zoe Walsh rendered in bright colors, including cyan, magenta, purple, and orange. The scene is highly abstracted, but mountains are visible in the background, and a pool occupies most of the foreground. The silhouettes of men, variously standing or lounging poolside, are overlaid throughout. The shape and colors of the landscape, pool, and men intersect and flood into each other.

Fiction Online

Surf Boys

By Nadia Davids

You could be a lot of things around Rafiq, but you couldn’t be boring.

Fiction The Filth issue

Rich

By Souvankham Thammavongsa

I guess when you have those things — grandchildren, children, and a husband — you talk about them, bring them into conversations, and let people know you have them.

Color illustration by Toma Vagner. A repeating illustration of an obese woman walking toward the right of the frame.

Fiction The Filth issue

Julie

By Mariana Enríquez

The original Spanish version of Mariana Enríquez’s short story “Julie,” which appears in the Filth issue.

Color illustration by Toma Vagner. A naked obese woman lies on her side. She is angled into the distance of the frame, with her feet looming in the foreground and her head almost hidden by her shoulder and breasts. Around her body are various small illustrative details, including potato chips and pills.

Fiction The Filth issue

Julie

By Mariana Enríquez

Julie had the dark dead eyes of a rat, untamable hair always standing on end, skin the color of wet sand.

Woman in a blue swimsuit blowing a whistle on a red cord while surfing on a dolphin's belly

Fiction The Filth issue

宽吻

By Shuang Xuetao

The original Chinese version of Shuang Xuetao’s short story “Bottlenose,” which appears in the Filth issue.

Illustration of a woman on a diving platform blowing a whistle while a dolphin sticks its head out of the water, by Jia Sung

Fiction The Filth issue

Bottlenose

By Shuang Xuetao

In the afternoon, there’s an incident at the aquarium. The attendants overfill the pool, and during the feeding session, a few of the piranhas manage to leap ashore.

A giant floating baby sucking on an elephant's trunk

Fiction The Filth issue

Manger l’autre

By Ananda Devi

The original French version of Ananda Devi’s story “Eat the Other,” which appears in the Filth issue.

A giant floating baby sucking on elephant's trunk

Fiction The Filth issue

Eat the Other

By Ananda Devi

But nothing sufficed. My mouth was a cavern. More, more, more, screamed the royal baby, the red-cheeked tyrant, the sumo-shaped conqueror.

Collage featuring ripped images of nude painings

Fiction The Filth issue

First Trip to Brewster

By Samuel R. Delany

He was looking for a rock about the size of David’s. What he found was — of course — a fragment of cinder block.

Digital illustration by Carolina Moscoso of a slightly scattered but elegant room. There are no people present, but there is plenty of evidence of activity. A bust of a man’s butt and upper body sits on the right side — a smiley-face sticker is affixed to the left butt cheek. A large canvas sits on an easel in the background. A blanket and pillows are scattered on a long lounge chair. The room is illuminated by large white lanterns hanging from the ceiling.

Fiction The Filth issue

Community Work

By Brontez Purnell

I am not by nature an overly choosy person when it comes to lovers, but my one rule is that his skin has to be as soft and as beautiful as mine.

Close-up vector illustration of the character Aqeesha, who has dark skin and is sporting red lipstick, red eyebrows, and a gold septum ring.

Fiction The Filth issue

Aqeesha

By Rémy Ngamije

I know you want a chambré retelling of this story — you liked a girl, it didn’t work out, life loped along after your loss — but I have only the piping-hot truth for a scalding cup of tea.

A person standing with the hands clasped behind their back

Fiction The Filth issue

Despot

By Zain Khalid

This was nothing more than a once-in-a-lifetime constipation.

Digital illustration by Brindha Kumar. A BMW 540i makes its way through a car wash, surrounded by brightly colored mitter curtains, at the top of the frame. Below the car wash scene are eight panels showing different images relevant to the story, including a close-up of the protagonist’s purple nipples and reproduction of Van Gogh’s painting The Bedroom.

Fiction The Filth issue

540i

By Giada Scodellaro

The water is rushing, rushing out against the green car, a 2003 BMW 540i. An artificial typhoon is summoned, loud against the metal.

Illustration of a woman's blue hand, dripping, by Dadu Shin

Fiction The Filth issue

Galápagos

By Fátima Vélez

The original Spanish version of Fátima Vélez's story "Galápagos," which appears in the Filth issue.

Illustration of a woman's blue hand, dripping, by Dadu Shin

Fiction The Filth issue

Galápagos

By Fátima Vélez

Something minor like losing a nail: one day a cut at the edge of the pinky nail, the finger gets infected, it fills with pus, I press, right thumb over left pinky, white pus shoots out…

Illustration of a couple embracing in the window of a subway car

Fiction The Filth issue

Traitors

By Pamela Erens

We wanted death, lots of death, bouquets of death blooming and raining down on us from the tall trees. We were done with cowardice and being control freaks.

Sunlight streams through stained-glass windows in a church, casting colorful patterns against an adjacent stone wall.

Fiction Online

Nothing About Love

By Roskva Koritzinsky

She lied with her body and hoped that one day the lie would spread to her brain like a bacterial infection in a hot and humid climate.

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