The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For March, we are delighted to publish a new piece by David Frankel. It looked like an old tool box, handmade from planks, screwed together at the corners. A cloth cover, stiff with grime, failed to contain the…
The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For January, we are delighted to publish a new piece by P. C. Evans. The Attic Over the Weigh House Then one day, over coffee, Nicky said, ‘Why don’t we go out for dinner after work one…
The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2025. For December, we are delighted to publish a new story by Jane Fraser. It wasn’t a white Christmas in Gower as they’d promised on Wales Today. Lynne and David looked out over the ocean – frothy-white and agitated…
For some time before I wrote ‘Joy’, I’d been having strange feelings. I didn’t know what to make of them, or how to explain them. They occurred in bouts a few times a year. They were blasts of intense, untethered happiness, often ambushing me in very mundane settings. Ironically, they made me feel a little lonely afterwards, as I couldn’t think of anyone I could talk to about them who wouldn’t find me loopy. So, I kept quiet. Eventually, I confided in my husband, who listened, and told me he didn’t experience such things. I expect he thought I was loopy.
Eric was late to the airport, but Laura was not there yet with her life. The pieces of it would not come together. She was studying, she was being evicted, she worried her boyfriend was cheating on her. Someone had stolen her identity and was buying blenders from abroad in her name and she had spent a lot of time sorting it out.
The police told her the blenders were likely bought for mixing drugs. How could people do that to their bodies? Laura was training to be a nutritionist.
We are open for submissions until November 30th, 2025. Short stories can be anywhere between 500 and 5000 words in length. Please send no more than four poems. Please send in word docs rather than in PDF. These submissions will be considered for our online Story of the Month series, our online Poet of the…
The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout the remainder of 2025. For October, we are delighted to publish a new piece by Megan Neary. Michael left his apartment and walked to the spot along the curb where he had parked his car. It was gone. ‘Fuck,…
The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout the remainder of 2025. For September, we are delighted to publish a new piece by Penny Simpson.
Blood pooled in the palm of her outstretched hand and a single red tear rolled down her wrist. Truth be known, it turned his stomach. She had been crying and her knickers were on the bathroom floor.
The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout the remainder of 2025. For July, we are delighted to publish a new work by Tadgh Muller. And the dog started barking, charging around like she might rip down a curtain or knock over the table. My missus went…
The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout the remainder of 2025. For June, we are delighted to publish a new work by Aideen Henry.
At thirteen, David was proud of his vocabulary. He knew what ‘solipsism’ meant, and he was a ‘solipsist’, although he preferred to think of himself as an ‘egomaniac’, it sounded cooler; and, being a solipsistic egomaniac, he suspected that everything he’d ever experienced was created by his subconscious and only he was real.
One month after she graduated college, Leah and her mother took a vacation to Maine. Originally, Leah had intended to go backpacking across the country with her boyfriend, who she had been dating since freshman year, and who she later married, then divorced
I don’t bother going home to change after my last exam, even though it’s only three o’clock and the pub will be empty. In Carty’s you’ll get served in school uniform, as long as you take off your tie and blazer before approaching the bar.A lonely pint will be the perfect first drink; just me,…