That’s all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones.

-Raymond Carver

The Stories

Every short story published by Carve since 2007 (that’s 70+ stories and counting!) is available to read for free online, because good honest fiction should never disappear into obscurity. You can scroll through them below or use the sidebar menu to the right.

Premium Edition - 25% discount today only

In honor of what would’ve been Raymond Carver’s 75th birthday, we’re offering 25% discounts on single issues and subscriptions in our new Carve store. Check out our new 9x12” matte prints of our Premium Edition covers too.

If you love reading our stories online, you can help support our mission by buying individual issues or subscribing to our Premium Edition, available in print and iDevices (coming soon). This is truly the best way to help the magazine thrive.

The Premium Edition is handsomely designed and features exclusive content not available online, including author interviews, reader essays, Reject! stories, editorial comments, and more. For each Premium Edition issue, you can:

 select interior pages in hi-res.

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 for $39.95 $29.95/year - today only! Subscription will start with summer 2013 issue coming mid-June.

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Use your Facebook, Twitter, Google, or other login to leave a comment on any story. We’d love to hear what you think.

Story Spotlight

Don’t know which story to start reading? Look for stories from our Story Spotlight series and click the star to get a brief synopsis and overview of the story from our expert blogger, Rio Liang.

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Coming Soon: Summer 2013   Preview not yet available.

Short Stories (available mid-June):
Human Voices Drown Us by Sandra Hunter
George II by David Malone
The Relative Weight of Grief by Avril Barron
Cigarettes in Heaven by Jon Pearson
Water Like Stone by Merrill Montgomery

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Current Issue: Spring 2013      

Esoteric Awards (Natural Disaster theme)

Short Stories:
Storm in a Teacup by Dan Powell
The Possibility of Fire by Jessica Barksdale
Higher Ground by Karen Celestan

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Winter 2012    

Short Stories:
Lone Wolf by Eric Freeze
Literature Appreciation by Man Martin
Firebug by Katie Cortese
Snow Day by Gary V. Powell

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Fall 2012     

Raymond Carver short story contest

Short Stories:
1st place | The Odyssey by Jia Tolentino
2nd place | The Third Element by Jodi Paloni
3rd place | Neuropathy by Kathy Flann
Editor’s Choice (Matthew) | Starlings by Joseph Johnson 
Editor’s Choice (Kristin) | Floating on Water by Dalia Rosenfeld

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There are no Premium Editions prior to the fall 2012 issue. All issues contained short stories only.

Cover: Alessandra Toninello

Summer 2012

Carnival by Scott Atkinson
The Eternal Youth of Everyone Else by Adrienne Celt
Hurricane Emily by Subhadra Eberly

Note From the Editor

Spring 2012

Esoteric Awards (LGBT theme)

Chlorine Mermaid by Rachel Steiger-Meister
Angels by Jennifer Pashley
What You Miss by Sarah Terez Rosenblum
The Exhausted Pose by Jeremy Garrett

Photography Winner: Karen Shacham

Cover: Katrina Pallop

Winter 2011

Word Booth by Michael Landau
Coward by John Henry Fleming 
Demetrius by Kem Joy Ukwu

Cover: Andy Fox

Fall 2011

Raymond Carver short story contest

1st Place | Stalled Symphony by Liesl Wilke
2nd Place | Credo by Bridget Brewer
3rd Place | Promises, Promises by Susan Finch
Editor’s Choice: Matthew | Motherlove by Mark Farrington
Editor’s Choice: Kristin | Whiskey & Ribbons by Leesa Cross-Smith
Honorable Mention | The Mattress Boy of Cameroon by Kate Jackson
Honorable Mention | Oregon Grind by Rick Attig
Honorable Mention | The English Speakers by Sarah Quigley
Honorable Mention | What Happy Couples Do by Anna Cox

Cover: Michael Tedesco

Summer 2011

And They Pillaged the Dead by David Cameron
Some of Us Can Leave by Sara Schaff
Truth Poker by Mark Brazaitis

Cover: Quinn Franklin

Spring 2011

Here/Now by Frances Clow
Schadenfreude by Melanie Kokolios
The Time of Plenty by Judith Slater

Cover: Cassandra Rood

Winter 2010

Raymond Carver short story contest

1st Place | The White Rabbit by Maire Cooney
2nd Place | Unpracticed Altitudes by Shaun Hamill
3rd Place | When You Cross the Border by Molly Greeley
Editor’s Choice | It Was So Long Ago by Amber Krieger

Cover: Moonlight Unlimited

Fall 2010

Bleeding in the Belly by Emily Gill
Dirty Darlene by Sarah Kate Levy
MG Repairs by Sam Gridley

Carve was on hiatus between Fall 2009-Summer 2010 and did not publish new issues.

Cover: Emily Rusk

Summer 2009

Raymond Carver short story contest

1st Place | What You’ve Done For Me by John S. Walker
2nd Place | At the Last Minute by Martha Miller
3rd Place | Zero Pressure by Soma Mei Sheng Frazier
Editor’s Choice | How the Tiger Got Its Stripes by Nicholas Hogg

Cover: Jon Kersey

Spring 2009

Weather Girls by Marylou Fusco
Poetry by Dionne Irving

Cover: Yvonne Garcia

Winter 2008

One Way to Cook an Eel by Emily Bromfield 
Horses by Stacy Elaine Dacheux 
The Dead Kid by Gillian King
The Candy House of Roscoe, New York by Meagan Cass

Cover: Matthew Schniper

Fall 2008

Raymond Carver short story contest

1st Place | The Last Hours of Pompeii by Marc Nieson
2nd Place | Mourning the Departed by L. Annette Binder
3rd Place | Used to Be by Elizabeth Baines
Editor’s Choice | Cooling by Julie Eill
Editor’s Choice | Limits by Sung J. Woo

Cover: Kristan Taylor

Summer 2008

The Seagull by Rhea DeRose-Weiss
Indelible Ink by Elizabeth Corcoran

Cover: Lafayette Wattles

Spring 2008

Reward Poster by Cody McCafferty
Wall by Danielle Davis
A Dying Mother by Kelly Lundgren Pietrucha
Customer of Size by Mary Jones
Chicago Monologue by Eugene Chang

Cover: Melanie Graves

Winter 2007

 Raymond Carver short story contest

Agashi by AC Koch
Summit by Julia Gordon-Bramer
One Hundred Santas by Liz Skillman
The Ways You Are Gone by Kami Westhoff
Different Than Any Day So Far by Marc Phillips

Cover: Melanie Graves

Fall 2007

This One Thing by Jaren Watson
When My Body Smashed Into the Sidewalk by Yuvi Zalkow
Weekend With the Boy by Ezra

Cover: Matthew Limpede

Summer 2007

If You Don’t by Rob Bass
Turning the Bones by Marcy Campbell
Hybrid by Stephanie Dickinson
Samurai Bluegrass by Craig Terlson

Cover: Matthew Limpede

Spring 2007

When Snow Falls On Atlantic City by Nate House
Drinking in the Loons by Stephen MacKinnon
In His Own Image by Alyssa Morris
Think Engineering by Mike Schiavone
The First Fire by David Stoler

What happened to the rest of the stories?

In 2007 when the founding editor Melvin Sterne handed over operations to Matthew Limpede, there was a glitch and a hard drive meltdown, and electronic copies of the stories were lost. Paper copies still remain (authors may contact the editor if they need a copy), however there are no plans to transfer the paper copies into electronic versions again.

The only exception is the stories from 2006 which are still in the original electronic version and are being converted. They should be available in June this year.

Until then, a table of contents for each issue is avaiable for stories published from 2000-2006.

2006

November / Volume VII Issue VI

Trashy Desires of Women Nearing Fifty by Xu Xi
Summer’s Over by Mary Winsor
Awash in Love by Jane Buchan
Healing Waters by Dorene O’Brien
Under Libby’s Bonnet by Elizabeth K. Severn
The B-63 by Thomas Lisenbee
The Weighing of the Heart by James W. Brown
Rain by Wayne L. Price
Yum Yum Git You Some by Dustin Wells
The Naming of Mountains by W.J.Wilkinson

September / Volume VII Issue V

In the Old World by Robert F. James
Titties by Kay Sexton
Save Your Breath by Rick Hill
Egalite by Gustavo Bondoni
There Was Wayne by Aaron Hellem
She Had a Way With Plants by Karin Falcone
Comprehension by Man Martin
Rope by Adam Cushman
Ko Phuket by John C. Sakellar
Wiffle by Eric Vrooman
Afterwards by Laurie Mazzaferro
Dangerous Story by David Watts

July / Volume VII Issue IV

Ambush by Mark Tonsetic
Anne and Morgana, Rose and Pierre
by Patricia Gilmartin Patterson
Blue Devil by Brad Koski
Losing Control by Penny Feeny
Mandy by Susan R. Thornton
A Simplified Map of the Real World by Steven Allred
Pearl by M.A. Leighton
Temporary Assistant Professor of English by William Ryderr
Silent Witness by Jay Boyer
Tips by Mike Lubow
Chasing the Vixen by Alex Keegan
The Wager by Allison Barrett

May / Volume VII Issue III - Carver Awards Edition

The Understory by Tim Horvath
Notebook 366 by Michael Horner
The Taj Mahal by Jim Thomson
Western Union by Charles McLeod
The Galician by Linda M. Rodriguez Guglielmoni
Bridge by Eric Vrooman
In Zugzwang by S. Frederic Liss
All Songs Singing by Therese Stanton
A Summer Tale by Leslee Becker
How to Be Sure You Want to Be a Farm Girl by Catherine Elcik
A Map of the Area by Emily Franklin
City of Mr. Jiang by Louis Malloy

March / Volume VII Issue II

Miss Molly by Judy Crozier
Crash by Michele Melnick
Trespass by Judy Wilson
Associations by Chris Przybyszewski
Exit Strategies by Richard Peabody
Separated by Gail Chehab
Lousy Tee by Ken Pisani
SGGG by Kathy Karlson
Bicycle Riding by Zdravka Evtimovw
The Birthday Knife by Sean Gallagher
Janaki by Vijay Lakshmi
For Days on End by Jeff Tannen
Devil’s Gorge by Don Lowe

January / Volume VII Issue I

After Party by R.J. Comer
National Remnants Co. by Mark Esrig
Security by Sean Hoade
The Silent Treatment by Stephanie Reents
You People by Linda Dhavan
Jayne With a Y by Steve McBrearty
One Small Step by Susan Dugan
In The Kingdom by Rosemary Berkeley
A Red Chair for Sleeping by E. Echararria
Ian’s Fortune by Shelly Massanoble
The Life Coach by Mike Markel
Missionaries by J.E. Ogle
Her World by Caroline Kepnes
The Squirrel and the Crow by Lee Sterne

Table of Contents of Stories Published 2000-2005.