Unlikely Stories
@unlikely-stories.bsky.social
Posts in support of the Unlikely Stories on-line magazine of art & literature and Unlikely Books. Unlikely Stories was founded July 1, 1998.
https://www.unlikelystories.org/
Posts by Jonathan Penton
#TNRT
https://www.unlikelystories.org/
Posts by Jonathan Penton
#TNRT
Pinned
I'm considering ditching my Patreon and TipTipJar and working exclusively through Ko-Fi for donations. If anyone has any experience with Ko-Fi, I'd be grateful for your thoughts.
Please welcome Eliot S. Ku, who brings a short story, “Any Way That The Damage Doesn’t Show,” about one hellish night for an ER doctor facing an embarrassment of patients at unlikelystories.org/content/any-... #fiction #smallpress #litmag
Any Way That The Damage Doesn’t Show
Tonight is one of those shifts where it’s difficult to really care about the patients. Earlier in the evening, a guy who’d been stabbed in the brain with a hunting knife comes into the ER on a stretch...
unlikelystories.org
December 2, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Please welcome Eliot S. Ku, who brings a short story, “Any Way That The Damage Doesn’t Show,” about one hellish night for an ER doctor facing an embarrassment of patients at unlikelystories.org/content/any-... #fiction #smallpress #litmag
Please meet Liliane, who brings us her creative non-fiction piece, “Snacks & Sandstone,” on tourism, fast food, and layers of sand and water at unlikelystories.org/content/snac... #cnf #creativenonfiction #smallpress #litmag
Snacks & Sandstone
6 p.m. on the road south of Kanab is a dusty journey past red, pink, and beige layers of time. Seeing that fast food chain’s logo emerge on the horizon during an otherwise aesthetically thrilling driv...
unlikelystories.org
December 1, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Please meet Liliane, who brings us her creative non-fiction piece, “Snacks & Sandstone,” on tourism, fast food, and layers of sand and water at unlikelystories.org/content/snac... #cnf #creativenonfiction #smallpress #litmag
Reposted by Unlikely Stories
Check out instant referential toothpick umbrellas by @jmartinpoetry.bsky.social from C22 Open Editions. Words and images colliding, folding in on themselves, collaged into supreme DADA madness. Read for free or buy in print!
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/i...
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/i...
instant referential toothpick umbrellas by Joshua Martin out now!
We here at C22 are proud to bring to you instant referential toothpick umbrellas by Joshua Martin, the latest in our Open Editions chapbook releases. Words and images colliding, folding in on thems…
c22press.wordpress.com
November 29, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Check out instant referential toothpick umbrellas by @jmartinpoetry.bsky.social from C22 Open Editions. Words and images colliding, folding in on themselves, collaged into supreme DADA madness. Read for free or buy in print!
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/i...
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/i...
Reposted by Unlikely Stories
Check out Parabolic Alterity by Vernon Frazer available from C2 Open Editions. A remarkable blend of text and visuals. A recontextualization of language into an altogether unfamiliar form. Read for free or buy in print!
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/p...
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/p...
Parabolic Alterity by Vernon Frazer out now!
We here at C22 are proud to bring to you Parabolic Alterity by Vernon Frazer, the latest in our Open Editions chapbook releases. In PARABOLIC ALTERITY Vernon Frazer creates a remarkable blend of te…
c22press.wordpress.com
November 29, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Check out Parabolic Alterity by Vernon Frazer available from C2 Open Editions. A remarkable blend of text and visuals. A recontextualization of language into an altogether unfamiliar form. Read for free or buy in print!
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/p...
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/p...
Reposted by Unlikely Stories
Check out Complicated Grief by Mark DuCharme available from C22 Open Editions! Complicated Grief interrogates and refracts the emotional layers of public crisis. Read for free or buy in print.
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/c...
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/c...
Complicated Grief by Mark DuCharme out now!
We here at C22 are proud to bring to you Complicated Grief by Mark Ducharme, the latest in our Open Editions series of chapbook releases. Written toward the end of the pandemic, Complicated Grief i…
c22press.wordpress.com
November 29, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Check out Complicated Grief by Mark DuCharme available from C22 Open Editions! Complicated Grief interrogates and refracts the emotional layers of public crisis. Read for free or buy in print.
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/c...
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/c...
IN ONE WEEK! Rodger Kamenetz and I will be reading at the Everette Maddox Memorial Reading Series at the Maple Leaf Bar, the longest-running open mic series in North America! Hope to see you there, and thanks so much to Nancy Harris for allowing us to feature! #nola #neworleans #poetry #openmic
November 30, 2025 at 7:14 PM
IN ONE WEEK! Rodger Kamenetz and I will be reading at the Everette Maddox Memorial Reading Series at the Maple Leaf Bar, the longest-running open mic series in North America! Hope to see you there, and thanks so much to Nancy Harris for allowing us to feature! #nola #neworleans #poetry #openmic
Good morning brave poetry lovers! Did you miss yesterday's episode of Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series? It's all up on the YouTubes now at youtu.be/zRkKmn4aSZ8
Lit Balm: Leslie Ullman, Mariano Zaro, Teresa Dzieglewicz, and Mike Carlson
YouTube video by Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series
youtu.be
November 30, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Good morning brave poetry lovers! Did you miss yesterday's episode of Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series? It's all up on the YouTubes now at youtu.be/zRkKmn4aSZ8
Reposted by Unlikely Stories
Cindy Ellen Hill is back with a novella, “The Last Two Chocolate Chip Cookies in Manhattan,” on what would happen if the federal government decided to destroy New York and all its inhabitants at unlikelystories.org/content/the-... #fiction #smallpress #litmag
The Last Two Chocolate Chip Cookies in Manhattan
“So yeah, I’ll tellya what happened. What paper did you say you were with again?” He held out his right hand, his white sleeve neatly rolled above the wrist. “Ken Ransom,” he said. “The Long March.” I...
unlikelystories.org
November 28, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Cindy Ellen Hill is back with a novella, “The Last Two Chocolate Chip Cookies in Manhattan,” on what would happen if the federal government decided to destroy New York and all its inhabitants at unlikelystories.org/content/the-... #fiction #smallpress #litmag
Why, yes, we publish on holidays, and have something very cool to share with you today. R.S. Nelson is back, with her essay on living in fear, fighting for change and America as an abused spouse, “My Mother’s America,” at unlikelystories.org/content/my-m... #Thanksgiving #America #smallpress #litmag
My Mother's America
When my mother first came to America, I was twelve. She was part of the over 260,000 Ecuadorians who left the country during the nineties to escape the political and economic crises and fled to the Un...
unlikelystories.org
November 27, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Why, yes, we publish on holidays, and have something very cool to share with you today. R.S. Nelson is back, with her essay on living in fear, fighting for change and America as an abused spouse, “My Mother’s America,” at unlikelystories.org/content/my-m... #Thanksgiving #America #smallpress #litmag
Reposted by Unlikely Stories
instant referential toothpick umbrellas by @c22press.bsky.social out now from C22 Open Editions! Words and images colliding, folding in on themselves, collaged into supreme DADA madness. Read for free or buy in print!
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/i...
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/i...
instant referential toothpick umbrellas by Joshua Martin out now!
We here at C22 are proud to bring to you instant referential toothpick umbrellas by Joshua Martin, the latest in our Open Editions chapbook releases. Words and images colliding, folding in on thems…
c22press.wordpress.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:51 PM
instant referential toothpick umbrellas by @c22press.bsky.social out now from C22 Open Editions! Words and images colliding, folding in on themselves, collaged into supreme DADA madness. Read for free or buy in print!
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/i...
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/i...
Reposted by Unlikely Stories
Parabolic Alterity by Vernon Frazer out now from C22 Open Editions! A recontextualization of language into an altogether unfamiliar form. Read the book for free!
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/p...
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/p...
Parabolic Alterity by Vernon Frazer out now!
We here at C22 are proud to bring to you Parabolic Alterity by Vernon Frazer, the latest in our Open Editions chapbook releases. In PARABOLIC ALTERITY Vernon Frazer creates a remarkable blend of te…
c22press.wordpress.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Parabolic Alterity by Vernon Frazer out now from C22 Open Editions! A recontextualization of language into an altogether unfamiliar form. Read the book for free!
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/p...
c22press.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/p...
Longtime Unlikely contributor John Grey is back, with two poems on speckled ducks, falling angels, and Laos in 1986 at unlikelystories.org/content/ange... #poetry #litmag #smallpress
"Angel Death" and "Laos, 1986"
Angel Death Power applauds when angels fall –slow and polite,like a king on its throne,as the wings, once white,are now just muddy roadkill feathersclinging to bones that barely rememberwhat it meant ...
unlikelystories.org
November 25, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Longtime Unlikely contributor John Grey is back, with two poems on speckled ducks, falling angels, and Laos in 1986 at unlikelystories.org/content/ange... #poetry #litmag #smallpress
Reposted by Unlikely Stories
Going to another town/city/state for Thanksgiving? Be sure to bring your loved ones some local zines to help them keep their neighbors safe.
Download and print "How to Report ICE" zines for localities all over the US:
drive.google.com/drive/folder...
Download and print "How to Report ICE" zines for localities all over the US:
drive.google.com/drive/folder...
SALUTE zines **BE SURE TO PRINT AT 100%!** - Google Drive
drive.google.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Going to another town/city/state for Thanksgiving? Be sure to bring your loved ones some local zines to help them keep their neighbors safe.
Download and print "How to Report ICE" zines for localities all over the US:
drive.google.com/drive/folder...
Download and print "How to Report ICE" zines for localities all over the US:
drive.google.com/drive/folder...
TOMORROW!
ONE WEEK! We'll hear pro-democracy, anti-fascist music, poetry, & other writing with a literary open mic! Get ready for Josh Benitez, NaTRILL Dizaster, Andy Young, Daniel W. K. Lee, Cid Galicia, Rel Farrar, Scythe Sylvia, Briana Augustus, & Russ Mercado & the No-Law Solidarity Choir! #falloffreedom
November 24, 2025 at 8:05 PM
TOMORROW!
New Orleans poets will be part of the Everette Maddox Poetry & Prose Reading Series at the Maple Leaf Bar! Rodger Kamenetz will read his book of prose, "Seeing into the Life of Things," & Jonathan Penton will read his book of poems, "A Limited Number of Miracles." #poetry #NewOrleans #NOLA #openmic
November 24, 2025 at 7:27 PM
New Orleans poets will be part of the Everette Maddox Poetry & Prose Reading Series at the Maple Leaf Bar! Rodger Kamenetz will read his book of prose, "Seeing into the Life of Things," & Jonathan Penton will read his book of poems, "A Limited Number of Miracles." #poetry #NewOrleans #NOLA #openmic
Welcome back Ethan Goffman, who brings us his absurd short story, “My Least Favorite Question,” on “national” origins and fanciful locations at unlikelystories.org/content/my-l... #fiction #litmag #smallpress
My Least Favorite Question
Back in Indiana, where I grew up, people would always ask, “Where are you from”? “Indiana,” I would reply, gesticulating uncontrollably in the way that my parents did. “No, where are you really from!?...
unlikelystories.org
November 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Welcome back Ethan Goffman, who brings us his absurd short story, “My Least Favorite Question,” on “national” origins and fanciful locations at unlikelystories.org/content/my-l... #fiction #litmag #smallpress
I'm considering ditching my Patreon and TipTipJar and working exclusively through Ko-Fi for donations. If anyone has any experience with Ko-Fi, I'd be grateful for your thoughts.
November 24, 2025 at 4:46 PM
I'm considering ditching my Patreon and TipTipJar and working exclusively through Ko-Fi for donations. If anyone has any experience with Ko-Fi, I'd be grateful for your thoughts.
I get these daily, along with offers to flood Amazon with positive reviews of my book. I once got a veiled threat to flood Amazon w negative reviews of my book if I didn't subscribe to their services. I can't get anyone else to acknowledge that they received such a threat. I might be losing my mind.
Weird AI thing: So, now that I'm kind of in the traditional author world, I regularly get spam from people promising to introduce my book to tons of book clubs to make lots of sales. A few years ago, they were clearly spam both for the offering and because they were generic. Now they aren't generic.
November 24, 2025 at 4:45 PM
I get these daily, along with offers to flood Amazon with positive reviews of my book. I once got a veiled threat to flood Amazon w negative reviews of my book if I didn't subscribe to their services. I can't get anyone else to acknowledge that they received such a threat. I might be losing my mind.
Reposted by Unlikely Stories
This feels too plausible to hit "like," even knowing it's a joke
Marjorie Taylor Greene can return to Congress if she runs again....as a Democrat.
November 22, 2025 at 6:29 PM
This feels too plausible to hit "like," even knowing it's a joke
Reposted by Unlikely Stories
OK, I wanna make a few things clear about the hotline cause I keep getting questions. It is not in indivisible New Orleans that is responsible for it. There’s a coalition of 30+ organizations around town who have been working on this for weeks and helping to staff it. It is voice only, no texts.
November 20, 2025 at 10:25 PM
OK, I wanna make a few things clear about the hotline cause I keep getting questions. It is not in indivisible New Orleans that is responsible for it. There’s a coalition of 30+ organizations around town who have been working on this for weeks and helping to staff it. It is voice only, no texts.
Please welcome Arijit Lahiri, who brings us his novella “Epic Fail: The Surpa Simulation,” revising Hindu mythology through a feminist and cyberpunk lens at unlikelystories.org/content/epic... #fiction #mythology #smallpress #litmag
Epic Fail
In the Ruins of the Story This is not history. Nor is it an attempt to offer historical accuracy, moral guidance, or religious affirmation. What unfolds in these pages is simply the re-telling of a ...
unlikelystories.org
November 21, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Please welcome Arijit Lahiri, who brings us his novella “Epic Fail: The Surpa Simulation,” revising Hindu mythology through a feminist and cyberpunk lens at unlikelystories.org/content/epic... #fiction #mythology #smallpress #litmag
Welcome back Mehreen Ahmed, who brings her quick creative non-fiction “The Path” on skin cancer, bleak trees, and thorny beautiful breezy summers at unlikelystories.org/content/the-... #creativenonfiction #cnf #litmag #smallpress
The Path
A harsh new land, lush sunlight burns a skin cancer, bleak trees, dark, and thorny beautiful, like piano-fingers, breezy summers, dry and humid, vast, dusty fields infrequent rainfall, apart from mush...
unlikelystories.org
November 20, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Welcome back Mehreen Ahmed, who brings her quick creative non-fiction “The Path” on skin cancer, bleak trees, and thorny beautiful breezy summers at unlikelystories.org/content/the-... #creativenonfiction #cnf #litmag #smallpress
Get ready New Orleans! Other cities have shown us the way!
our whistle kit zines are ready! with the new orleans rapid response hotline # on them: drive.google.com/drive/folder...
504 whistle kit zines - Google Drive
pdfs of NOLA whistle kit zines
drive.google.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Get ready New Orleans! Other cities have shown us the way!