This volume of The Conium Review features eleven new stories from Jessica Roeder, Samantha Duncan, Liz Kellebrew, Kate Gies, Shane Jones, Kathryn Hill, Emily Koon, Jasmine Sawers, Ingrid Jendrzejewski, and Maryse Meijer. A woman falls in love with a giant banana, a tiny goat takes up residence in a woman’s left ventricle, a ghost tour goes awry, and more. Readers will delight in this collection’s absurd settings, dark humor, and inventive language.

This issue includes The Mother, by Kathryn Hill, winner of The Conium Review’s 2016 Innovative Short Fiction Contest. The contest was judged by Lindsay Hunter, author of Ugly Girls, Don’t Kiss Me, and Daddy’s. Lindsay said This story felt as alive, as full of cells, as the child the protagonist agonizes over carrying. It is heartbreaking and harsh, and an important insight into the ever-morphing chemistry of a mother’s brain.