Saturday, July 18, 2026·

Vol. I · No. 24 · The Weekly Issue · From Key West to the Panhandle

The Floridian

Reporting, fiction, criticism, poetry, and cartoons — from the peninsula

Fiction

New short stories, every week.

One story a week — for the sentence you'll still be thinking about at the Sunday farmers' market.


From the fiction desk

Also in fiction

Fiction

The Salt-Gatherers

A retired pool technician in Englewood finds himself watching an unfamiliar type of migration along the canals of Charlotte County.

Flash Fiction

Deep Light

Under the black water of the reef, two brothers search for something lost during the building of the overseas highway.

Fiction (Translated From an Imagined Yucatec)

Under the Shade of the Zapote

A seasonal harvester in the tomato fields of Collier County recalls the limestone wells of his youth while waiting out a tropical depression.

Fiction

Shell and Bone

An assistant at a roadside fossil museum near Palatka comes to terms with her employer's shifting sense of prehistory.

Flash Fiction

Concrete and Bougainvillea

During the demolition of an Art Deco hotel on Collins Avenue, an architect finds a collection of midcentury menus in the wall cavities.

Fiction (Translated From an Imagined Creole)

Flight Over NE Second Avenue

A grandfather in Little Haiti tends to his racing pigeons while the shadow of new condominiums creeps across his backyard.

Fiction

The Aerialist’s Knee

In a trailer park near Sarasota, a retired performer from the Ringling show watches the new acts practice on the beach.

Flash Fiction

Sound of the Shells

A stonecutter on Anastasia Island reflects on the soft rock that built the oldest fort in Florida.

Fiction

Deep Water, Flat Sky

A veteran fishing guide on Lake Okeechobee takes out a client who seems more interested in the depth finder than the fish.

Flash Fiction

The Wool of the Sea

A Greek diver in Tarpon Springs prepares his heavy canvas suit for his final descent of the spring season.

Fiction (Translated From an Imagined Spanish)

The Leaf-Reader

In the damp hold of an Ybor City brick building, an elderly woman remembers the Cuba she left behind while stripping the heavy veins from tobacco leaves.

Fiction

Princess of the Retention Pond

An actress playing a fairy princess at an Orlando theme park spends her lunch break behind the artificial mountain.

Flash Fiction

Ice on the Valencia

A grower in Lake County walks his groves after a sudden January freeze has threatened his family's livelihood.

Fiction (Translated From an Imagined French)

The Salt-Tongue

A young woman from Bordeaux finds herself sorting wild oysters in a timber-built shack on the Florida panhandle.

Fiction

Bone and Calusa

An archaeologist digging on a remote island near Cedar Key uncovers a layer of prehistoric ash that challenges her timeline.

The Weekly Issue

Read the writing that made the century.

Unlimited access to reporting, fiction, criticism, and the archive — delivered to your door and your device.