Best of Nailpolish Stories, a Tiny and Colorful Literary Journal, 2021

Best of 2021 stories were selected for their unique use of language, breadth of story in so few words, emotional impact, and the complex and original relationship of the titles to their stories. Congratulations to the writers whose work was selected for this special issue. And thank you to every submitter, contributor and reader of 2021. Nailpolish Stories wishes you an abundance of good health and a most happy 2022. A special note to add that this is the first Best of Issue to feature two pieces by the same author from different issues, Edmund Fines.

From April:

Violet Sky Holographic by Edmund Fines

Diminished by the northern lights and endless skies, he gazed across the tundra and wondered when he’d be home again.  A steely gust roared, “Never.”  

Edmund Fines lives in Toronto with his wife, daughter, and versatile pug.

Ballet Slipper by S. Britton

At dawn, hungover and broke, he stood, hopeless, as objects and curses rained down from her bedroom window.  Then it flew at him, ribbons fluttering. 

S. Britton runs a downmarket AirB&B, near YYZ.

Unholey Ends by B.J. Thompson

“That hole, by our feet. Was it there before?”

“No.”

“And up there. Was it…”

“No.”

Echoed murmurs cascade up and down. The implosion begins.

B. J. Thompson is a retired public relations liaison and currently a Calgary, Canada-based literary novelist and short story writer. B. J.’s works examine the process of death — of an historical icon, an ideal or an event — in a Trumanesque non-fiction novel delivery, to reveal an answer to a long-held mystery or a societal question, for it’s in life’s final moments that truth plays the only role.

Cloudy Blue-Grey by Jefferey G. Moss

A thousand sea lions

bark into the mist. 

Up the coast

sea elephants molt and fast. 

I pray tonight

The Big Dipper reveals

pathways home. 

Jeffrey G. Moss was born and bred in Brooklyn, USA. After 32 years urging 13/14 year olds to craft their worlds he is branching out and following some of his own advice. He has pieces in Bending Genres, Minnow Literary Magazine,Humana Obscura, SPACEONSPACE, and forthcoming in Hunger Mountain. 

Find Me an Oasis by Susanna Lepow

The sky weeps bitter tears. Ahead, horns blare and lights flash, the city at night a living postcard. I wilt, and you carry me home.

Susanna is a writer and sometimes runner outside of Seattle, Washington. In her minimal spare time, she watches too many Netflix documentaries and pretends she knows how to cook.

In Stitches by Emma Foster

Sunday morning, we muse on life over chicken and dumplings. We joke over heartache, regret, because it’s over. We realize we were made into monsters. 

Emma Foster writes as much as she can about monsters or innocence or both. She’s been published in The Cedarville Review, Voices of the Valley, Ariel Chart, and is forthcoming in Sledgehammer Lit. She plans on attending graduate school for creative writing in England. 

From October:

Steel Waters Run Deep

We swam downstream from the forge outlet pipes where the water was warmer.  Afterward, we smoked cigarettes and admired the metallic sheen on our skin.

Edmund Fines lives in Toronto with his wife, daughter, and versatile pug.  He recently had a short story published with Acta Victoriana.

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