A catalog of the tools different alien species use to read and write, leading to fundamental questions about what it means to make patterns of knowledge against the noise of the universe.

A writing critic reviews the construction of Charles Chesnutt’s stories and how to write surfiction.

A woman, living with her husband, is overcome with a strange, inexplicable ailment to her body.

A woman embarks on a treacherous, snowy journey to help her friend.

A maid, silently and in thought alone, contemplates her own position in a house full of opulent, decadent lives.

The ex-wife of a famous male writer considers a story he wrote about a neighbor they once had.

A mother, her two children, and their stepfather come over to a friend’s for a dinner on Labor Day.