In Jordan Hubrich’s debut story, “The House that Filled with Sand,” amazingly, unsettlingly, unnervingly, a house, in fact, begins to fill with sand. But that’s just in the first sentence.

In Lior Torenberg’s “Etymology,” a grieving young woman in a bad relationship receives comfort and guidance from a mysterious next-door neighbor.

In Zach Miano’s “Leftovers”—one of the winners of our Teen Writing Contest—a teen living in a low-income neighborhood of Barcelona helps his mother get by while waiting for a father who might never return.