(a letter I never learned how to write) Note: بابا جان (Baba Jan) means "Dear Father" in Farsi/Dari. Return to sender. Language: insufficient. Grief: postage unpaid. Recipient: missing. Baba Jan, I wrote your name on the envelope, then wiped it off with my sleeve. It looked too alive. Like maybe if I spelled it wrong, you'd stay dead. Mama said you lived on the hill behind the bakery that sold sesame at noon.

by Helen Collins Sitler | The limits of change.

We’d agreed to never come back to this place yet here we are. The wind whispers through the trees and unsettles our hair, trying to remind us to leave. Why would we return to these woods? “I don’t car...

by Mimi Schwartz | What the living carry.

September 2, 2025 ISSUE SIX BACK TO TOP Sudha Balagopal FICTION Here and There ❦ I hear the double ring at the other end in India—different from the single ring here in the US. For the first minute…

I'm driving home after checking out the art museum as a possible wedding venue when I see Papa's Honda outside his office building. It's past seven on Friday evening and the tall street lamp casts a p...

To submit, simply attach one short story, saved as an MS Word document, to an email and send it to: doric.literary@gmail.com No cover letter is required* but be sure to include your story’s t…

by Julie Parker | Three trips to Walgreens.