brief + incorrect
@briefincorrect.bsky.social
A small online literary magazine for the strange, the hybrid, and the difficult to categorize. Prose that resists sense but maintains something else. Under 1,000 words.
Twenty-seven flowers on the curtains. Six sides to the lampshade. A childhood fear born during the Cuban Missile Crisis becomes a lifelong ritual of trying to keep catastrophe at bay. Until, eventually, the counting stops.
Fear of Three
By Paul Goodwin
briefincorrect.substack.com
His wife is having a heart attack. His phone would like him to know that his cloud storage is 99% full. A story about distraction, attention, and the increasingly difficult business of staying in the room. @zaryfekete.bsky.social
Alert
By Zary Fekete
briefincorrect.substack.com
Bartholomew Lamb investigates who is a the greater storyteller: James Joyce, whose 24-hour Ulysses takes roughly 14 hours to absorb, or David, who once took two hours to describe a car that burned for less than three minutes?
Burning
By Bartholomew Lamb
briefincorrect.substack.com
brief + incorrect was almost acquired this morning. The word “almost” is doing some work here.
An Editor's Interruption: A Statement Regarding Recent Negotiations
The parties remain far apart
briefincorrect.substack.com
Hilda arrives at an empty cemetery on a rainy Monday morning carrying a small box. Her father has been dead seventeen years. Her mother has just died. There’s one last bit of family business to settle.
Over His Dead Body
By Kenneth M. Kapp
briefincorrect.substack.com
The Titanic is sinking. Julian Grey is a comic, acrobat, thief, and celebrated foot-juggler who has no intention of going down with it. All he needs is a dress, a warm coat, ladies’ boots, and one final performance.
1912
By DC Diamondopolous
open.substack.com
A beautifully restrained piece about memory, migration, family, and the alternate lives we continue carrying long after we’ve left a place behind.
Wherever You Go, There You Are
By Beth Sherman // An Intrusion received at 10:23 am EST
open.substack.com
Love, grief, devotion, obsession—the distance between them is often measured in language. @dempseystrangeways.bsky.social
I Love Your Bones
By Dempsey Strangeways
open.substack.com
You think your old friend died of colon cancer. Then you run into him at the mall, eating lunch. “A Fucked Up Encounter with a Guy I Thought Was Dead” by Salvatore Difalco is up After Hours.
A Fucked Up Encounter With a Guy I Thought Was Dead
By Salvatore Difalco // After Hours released at 11:00 pm EST
open.substack.com
A loose screen door. A motel room. A cabin in the rain. Dale Scherfling’s “The Necessary Thing” lets silence do the work.
The Necessary Thing
By Dale Scherfling
open.substack.com
An unexpected package. A birthday song for the wrong person. A machine that walks into the marsh. William Doreski’s “Today’s Delivery” is today’s piece at brief + incorrect.
Today's Delivery
by William Doreski
open.substack.com
Sometimes the funniest stories are the ones that never wink at the reader.
Samuria Social Club
By Paul Lewellan
open.substack.com
Everyone in this story thinks they’re having the same conversation. They are not. Paul Lewallen’s “Samurai Social Club” is a perfectly paced comedy built on implication, timing, and one remarkable phone call.
Samuria Social Club
By Paul Lewellan
open.substack.com
A man looks to the sky hoping for Superman. A crow has different plans. David Sydney (who writes fiction in and out of the EHR) brings us “Sunday Morning Sky.”
Sunday Morning Sky
By David Sydney // A Found Object relayed at 1:33 pm EST
open.substack.com
A childhood fear of birds becomes a meditation on memory, running, love, and the wisdom passed down by a grandmother. “Embrace your fears, you coward.”
Quoth the Raven
By Deb Blenkhorn
open.substack.com
The ordinary routines of care continue while something terrible and unnamed, gathers just beyond the kitchen door. “Night Terrors” by Jack Lennon
Night Terrors
By Jack Lennon
open.substack.com
Jack Lennon’s “Night Terrors” may look unfamiliar at first—it’s written in Scots—but after the first paragraph, the dialect disappears, leaving only a grandmother, a kitchen, bacon rolls, and the quiet terror of realizing someone you love may already be slipping away.
Night Terrors
By Jack Lennon
open.substack.com
A man—or perhaps a woman—robs a bank using a fish. No one agrees whether the fish was a weapon or a hostage. Read “Deception” by Ken Poyner, now at brief + incorrect. @kenpoyner.bsky.social
Deception
By Ken Poyner // A Found Object relayed at 2:09 pm EST
open.substack.com
I think I’ve finally figured out what I’m looking for as an editor.
An Editor's Interruption: An Empty City
On reading to recognize yourself
open.substack.com
I think I've finally figured out what I'm looking for as an editor. The feeling that someone has wandered into the same unanswered questions I keep returning to. This week's Editor's Interruption is about Ballard, submissions, typewriters, and why slower attention still matters.
An Editor's Interruption: An Empty City
On reading to recognize yourself
open.substack.com
“Spirit of the stairs”—the perfect comeback that arrives too late. Jon Wesick’s latest flash is a conversation made of puns, crossed wires, and perfectly mistimed replies. @wesickjon.bsky.social
Spirit of the Stairs
By Jon Wesick
open.substack.com
Some dreams never quite disappear; they simply change shape.
Dreaming of Twins
By David Margolin
open.substack.com
