Featured Story - Oranges by Bea Keeler

What is it about shopping for groceries which makes the process so damn stressful? Picking the perfect fruit can be quite a chore, especially with another shopper breathing down your neck as you rummage through the produce. Oranges, Keeler's first addition to our Short(er) Fiction series, is a glimpse into one of those explosive conflicts with a stranger which is over before you know it.

READ ORANGES

And don't forget, from now until the end of March you will receive 20% off Short(er) Fiction Volumes 1 and 2 by entering the code SpringFiction during checkout at The Blasted Tree Store!

Featured Poetry - Earwig / Worms by Olivia Alexander

Gritty and terse, both Earwig and Worms by Olivia Alexander experiment in the style of Charles Bukowski, poet-king of creepy crawlies. What is it about insect life that we find so repugnant? Is it too alien, too invasive, too low; or is it too like our own condition, too much a reminder of our own worth, our futility and viciousness? Burrow with us into those dark, private spaces where the bugs live.

READ EARWIG

READ WORMS

Featured Poetry - Everything All At Once by Laura Rojas

A collection universal in scope, yet deeply personal in execution, Everything All At Once by Laura Rojas traces the connection between all things, like "pieces of red yarn / woven through molecular spaces" linking all times and all places. Her recurring symbolic imagery unfolds into layered significance, building an energetic and heartfelt worldview at once uniquely her own while accessible to everyone. You can find your connection with Everything All At Once online, then get a high quality chapbook of your own from The Blasted Tree Store.

READ EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE

Featured Story - Dialogues with Chatbot by Kyle Flemmer

The Turing test evaluates machines' ability to exhibit behavior equal to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human being. Believe it or not, we have computer programs (i.e. chatbots) advanced enough to fool human users into thinking they are talking with another person. If you've ever used one, you know their reactions are occasionally profound, though usually absurd. This is a simulated account of a simulated account.

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Dialogues with Chatbot is part of Short(er) Fiction Vol. 2, our newest installment in the Short(er) Fiction series, showcasing great Canadian fiction less than 2500 words. Short(er) Fiction Vol. 2 is now available from The Blasted Tree Store.

Featured Story - Foxish by Mitch Findlay

Fox"ish\, a. Foxlike - like a fox. As in clever. But how clever is the fox who's been hit by a car? Perhaps more clever than you would expect! Meet a silver-tongued creature from a realm of magic realism in Mitch Findlay's first Blasted Tree short story, at once funny, endearing, dark, and touching. Findlay's exuberant use of language tugs disarmingly at the veil between here and the hereafter, playing foxlike with your expectations about death and the nature of communication.

READ FOXISH

Foxish is part of our Short(er) Fiction catalog, showcasing great Canadian fiction less than 2500 words. Our first published collection in the series, Short(er) Fiction Vol. 1, is now available from The Blasted Tree Store. Foxish is soon to follow in our forthcoming Volume 2.

Featured Poetry - These Are Fragments by Laura Dyer

The various pieces brought together in this Featured Poetry collection form a vision of love for people, places, and cultures. Laura Dyer breaks romantic content into modern, exploratory forms, playing with ideas of alteration over time as someone or something becomes a memory. What we remember in matters of the heart is often half-honest, yet somewhere in these memories lie fragments of truth. These poems are Dyer's fragments. These Are Fragments is available online and in print from The Blasted Tree Store.

READ THESE ARE FRAGMENTS

Pre-order T-shirt, Win an Advance Copy of These Are Fragments

Pre-order your Blasted Tree T-shirt by Monday, Jan. 26th, and you could win an advance copy of our forthcoming poetry collection, These Are Fragments by Laura Dyer! To enter, Like our page on Facebook and private message us your size and color preference. Our shirts come in black or white, unisex size S - XL, and cost $20.00 + shipping. A winner will be picked on Tuesday, Jan. 27th, and announced on Facebook.

PRE-ORDER A T-SHIRT

Featured Essay - Entheogens and the Mind of Society by James Jesso

When we asked James Jesso to write for us on the topic closest to his heart, we expected an essay defending the use of psychedelics from a highly-specialized perspective. Soon we received an essay much broader and more powerful in scope, and of interest to more than just the psychonauts among us. Entheogens and the Mind of Society cuts straight to the issues behind prohibition and the structures which prevent us from thinking for ourselves. At its core, this two-part treatise stands for freedom of the mind and the right to explore our inner topographies under the light of non-ordinary experience. Each part of the essay is available to read online, and you can purchase the essay in physical format from The Blasted Tree Store.

READ ENTHEOGENS AND THE MIND OF SOCIETY