A nameless person tells a story of when they had an intimate conversation over dinner with a former schoolmate whom they idealized.

When a mysterious new member joins a group of struggling authors, the friends discover that they may have a supernatural creature in their midst, who can grant a single author success above all the others—but at a cost.

An author discusses with his friend the best way to write about a poor aunt. Their words take on a new power when he manifests a literal poor aunt on his back and draws in spectators.

On a road trip from Ann Arbor to Buffalo, a young man stops in Cleveland and meets a whole host of characters who, like the pseudonyms they've chosen, aren't quite what they seem.

Searching for a muse to inspire a novel he is attempting to write, an author in San Francisco finds his passions ignited by something much more sinister.

A writer receiving feedback from a professor on their drafts is sure that the person on the other end is a man. They wrestle with their own hidden identities until the end of their literary relationship comes with an unexpected revelation.

Caught between two dimensions of spacetime, a poet shares stories with two women in need of his narrative insight, all the while meditating on the meaning of stories and the intricacies of interpersonal connection.

Two men putting on a production for their New York theater company seek out a legendary, elderly actor, but upon finding him, they meet a man as dilapidated as the theater he once worked for.

In the depths of his mind, a writer tries to uncover the autonomous, nefarious motivations of his own characters.

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