Ordinary lives look mundane to the casual observer, but not to the writer. A good story connects with experiences we have all been touched by somehow. A great story reframes that experience.

•  “Running Alone”, by Halimah Marcus, One Story, Issue Number 176

Powerfully descriptive, Marcus causes us to feel what it’s like to run the distance –how your body feels, what goes on in your head. This is a layered account of three family members who are pulled apart to run a lonely race that is all their own.  

• “Todd”, by Etagar Keret, Electric Literature/Recommended Reading

A quirky, first-person story where a writer sets out to appease a friend by writing the story he requested. He ends up writing a story that reveals his friend’s anguish and the power of writing.

• “Finding Religion on the Pacific Coast Trail”, by Margaret A. Frey, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, April 2013

There is so much packed into this little story about an adult son on the trail (real/life) and his mother, who summons an inadequate child’s faith to help her face her fears for him.

• “Swimming in the Big Pool”, by Cindy Forbes, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, April 2013

Helping a friend make her first deep-end dive is more straight forward that urging her to jump out of her marriage. How many of us keep silent because we know it’s not our call?

• “Zen and the Ultimate Truth”, by Philip Goldberg, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, April 2013

I’m intrigued by the title. Zen perches on a spectrum somewhere between a peaceful state of mind and uber-coolness. The zen in this noir tale is skin deep. A young man confident in his Brad Pitt good looks speeds with uber-madness toward destruction and leaves a nasty wake.

• “Organic”, by Robert D. Kirvel, American Athenaeum, Front Porch, 2013

I sympathized pretty quickly with the struggling farm family, and just as I was rooting for their success I began to suspect this was an expose of the poultry business. I was right. Everything you didn’t want to know about your chicken fricassee, but the story has balance, and it makes you think.

• “The Matchmaker”, by Elizabeth Berg, Ordinary Life

An eleven-year-old with time on her hands amuses herself teaching English to an old German lady in her neighborhood. She learns lessons about backbone and compassion that serve her well.