Neil Serven

“Men on Mars.” Short story. Beloit Fiction Journal #23, Spring 2010.

“Gunplay.” Flash story. fwriction : review, 21 April 2011. (Read online here.)

“A Killing in the Market.” Flash story. Pure Slush, 28 August 2011. (Read online here.)

“Return Policy.” Short story. Washington Square Review #29, Winter/Spring 2012.

“The Violent Kind.” Flash story. A-Minor, 30 April 2012. (Read online here.)

“Living Off the Man.” Exquisite Quartet with Meg Tuite, Misti Rainwater-Lites, and Aleathia Drehmer. Used Furniture Review, 18 September 2012. (Read online here.)

“Our Place.” Flash story. Durable Goods #80, February 2013; reprinted in Poiesis Review #6, 2013 (Honorable Mention, Luminaire Award for Best Prose).

“Where the Sun Don’t Shine.” Short story. Atticus Review, 5 February 2013. (Read online here.)

“In the Whore’s Style.” Short story. Ayris #3, 2013 (read online here).

“Duster.” Short story. Cobalt, July 2013 (Shortlisted for the 2013 Jim Palmer Baseball Writing Prize; read online here).

“Baby Elephant Walk.” Short story. Pithead Chapel, May 2014 (Nominated for Sundress Publications’ 2014 Best of the Net Anthology and the 2015 Pushcart Prize; read online here).

“Hurry Someday.” Short story. Stymie Magazine, 16 June 2014. (Read online here.)

“Wonderland.” Short story. Washington Square Review #36, Summer/Fall 2015. (Read online here)

“The Old Apple.” Short story. Cobalt, October 2015 (Shortlisted for the 2015 Earl Weaver Baseball Writing Prize; read online here); reprinted in Cobalt Review, 2016.

“The Gazers.” Short story. Pine Hills Review, 17 August 2016. (Read online here)

“The Physics of Fools.” Mini-essay. Prairie Schooner, 31 August 2016. (Read online here)

“Real Property.” Flash story. JMWW, 30 January 2017. (Read online here.)

“My Father, the High Line: A Fish Story.” Essay. Catapult, 5 April 2017. (Read online here.)

“Head Under Water.” Short story. Prick of the Spindle, 30 May 2017. (Read online here.)

“Before the Internet, TV Guide was the Place for Smart Criticism.” Essay. Electric Literature, 15 June 2017. (Read online here.)

“Potatoes in Minutes.” Short story. Bodega #59, July 2017. (Nominated for the 2018 Pushcart Prize; read online here.)

“Halfway Back to Worcester.” Essay. The Smart Set, 5 January 2018. (Read online here.)

“The Sock Gnome.” Short story. Juked, 23 June 2018. (Read online here.)

“Curbside.” Short story. Ghost Town, August 2018. (Read online here.)

“Andy Capp and the Survival of the Neediest.” Essay. Ploughshares blog, 20 September 2018 (Read online here.)

“Dixie Whistle.” Short story. The Greensboro Review #107, Spring 2020. (Read online here.)

“What Emojis Can’t Express: How Handwriting Reveals Our True Selves.” Essay. Literary Hub, 1 May 2023 (Read online here.)

“Varnish Day.” Flash story. Monkeybicycle, 8 December 2023. (Read online here.)

“We Don’t Joke About Such Things.” Short story. Post Road, forthcoming.

“Ill Nature.” Essay. The Pinch, forthcoming.

Ploughshares 2022: 

“The Word as Souvenir in The Souvenir Museum.” Essay, 7 January 2022 (Read online here.)

“Nicholson Baker’s Deep Dives.” Essay, 10 February 2022 (Read online here.)

“Maggie Nelson’s Complication of Freedom.” Essay, 14 April 2022 (Read online here.)

“Also a Poet‘s Exploration of Not Being There.” Essay, 16 June 2022 (Read online here.)

“Hashtag Good Guy With a Gun‘s Unsettling Portrayal of the Dark Cells of the Internet.” Essay, 25 July 2022 (Read online here.)

“Art and Capital.” Essay, 1 Sept. 2022 (Read online here.)

“The Subtle Violence of Weldon Kees’s Poetry.” Essay. 22 November 2022 (Read online here.)

“The Idiot and the Betrayal of Language.” Essay. 17 January 2023 (Read online here.)