Current Issue

Letter From the Editors

I hope this message finds you well. As the editors of Philadelphia Stories, we are thankful to celebrate 20 years of literary excellence in the greater Philadelphia area.

Mr. Ashbury

He said he loved his wife. Part of me wanted to believe him—wanted to believe he was telling the truth.

If All We Did Was Sweat

The man standing across from me has a long, barbed scar cutting straight down his chest.

You Suck At Striper Fishing

You suck at striper fishing declares a bumper sticker on a Toyota Tacoma.

Tombstones in the Delaware River

Graves warehouse immortality like a bank stores bullion.

Oxygen Destroyer

Brackish water detonates, stickleback failing to squirm from the kingfisher’s bill.

Contrary to Popular Belief, or, My Parents Debate Religion Over Coffee

My father doesn’t believe in God the way he thinks he should.

Flying Over Western PA

Allegheny hills flatten on ascent

Seance

The world of direct marketing is a medium reaching out to you, dearly departed first wife.

Gentradelphia

I see whiteness, lightness; is it righteousness?

Street Impressions

As on a children’s show, the green-and-cream trolley with wide windows for eyes,

Solidarity

When protesters lie on the ground it is called a die-in

An Interview with Charles Holdefer

Charles Holdefer is a writer based in Brussels, Belgium. His latest collection of short stories, Ivan the Terrible Goes on a Family Picnic, has just been released.

Book Review: More Strange Than True by C.J. Spataro

C.J. Spataro’s More Strange Than True is a genre-blending novel of romance and fantasy set in modern-day Philadelphia.

Book Review: Doctor Spight by L.M. Asta

Dr. Drew Spight, an obstetrics and gynecology attending at St. Thomas Medical Center in Philadelphia, wanted to escape.

Book Review: Rainbow Tales by Kathleen Murphey

This time there really is something new under the summer sun.

ONLINE Bonus – Book Review: Dwell Here and Prosper by Chris Eagle

At eighteen, while a first-year student at Villanova, Chris Eagle became the primary caregiver for his father, Dick Eagle, after he suffered a stroke in his Delco home.

ONLINE Bonus – Book Review: One Day I Am A Field by Amy Small-McKinney

Author Amy Small-McKinney wastes no time inviting us to enter a world of grief as she accompanies her husband on a journey who has been living with dementia.

ONLINE Bonus – Book Review: House Parties by Lynn Levin

House Parties is the debut short story collection of Lynn Levin, an established poet and English faculty member at Drexel University.

ONLINE Bonus – Broken

That summer, August 1969, fourteen-years-old, I rode the trolley to the Army/Navy store and bought hip-hugger bellbottoms.