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Michael Byers

Michael Byers’s work has appeared in the New York Times, the Walrus Magazine, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. He has received merit awards from the Communication Arts in 2013 and 2014. His art has also been recognized by the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, and 3x3

Illustrator

Dagadu Parab’s Wedding Horse

Summer 2020 | Fiction

The marriage procession turned from Mulund’s Lal Bahadur Shastri Road toward the railway station, wending its way through the main bazaar. Leading the procession were the men of the brass band in their glittering outfits, followed by the boys with their shiny teenage mustaches. In the middle were the middle-aged men in their tight T-shirts, bestowing proud glances on their wives and on the bazaar shops.

The Hafgufa

Summer 2020 | Fiction

The Hafgufa is a giant fish or whale said in Old Norse writings to roam the seas.

In the Konungs Skuggsjá, a book of tactics and morality written by King Håkon Håkonsson for his young son, the king is loath to describe the creature—for no one, he says, will believe him without seeing it first with his own two eyes. As for him, he fears it, “for it is a massive fish, that looks more like an island than a living thing.”

The Realm of Possibility

Summer 2020 | Fiction


“I have to do the wee,” announced the child.

“You have to make a wee,” her mother said. “And I asked you before we got in the car, remember? It’s too late for that now. You can go at the gym.”

“I have to do the wee,” the child repeated.