Fiction by Joshua Furst

For Joshua Furst's latest novel, visit the Revolutionaries page on Penguin Random House's website or read more about it on this website.

For his children's picture book, visit to the The Little Red Stroller page on Penguin Random House's website.

For his first novel, go to the Sabotage Café page on this website.

For his book of stories, go to the Short People page on this website.

You can buy his short story, "Around and About Leslie," from Amazon or Apple Books.

Some of Furst's other fiction appears below.

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"John Boehner fan fiction: Three novelists go inside the speaker’s brain and imagine the shutdown’s final hours."

Novelists Joshua Furst, Elliott Holt, and Alissa Nutting show us the shutdown through John Boehner's eyes.

Salon.com, October 2013.

Continue reading at Salon.com. (Archive.)

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"The final moments of Steve Jobs."

Salon.com, December 2011.

What did the Apple founder really see before he said "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow"?

Continue reading at Salon.com. (Archive.)

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“In Sirte”

Salon.com, August 2011.

The rats are rising out of their sewers. They’re crawling all over each other now, racing toward me in their pickup trucks. The foam drips from their mouths. Their daggers are out. But when they try to look through their bloodshot eyes, they see nothing. They are blind …

Continue reading at Salon.com. (Archive.)

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"Black Ice."

Published in BOMB magazine 111’s literary supplement, First Proof, Spring 2010.

BOMB’s Fiction for Driving Across America Series.

Listen to Joshua read this short story via BOMBsite.com, BOMBlog, or ArtOnAir.org.

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"The Hurricane."

Five Chapters, 2008.

The twenty-six-year-old salesman for Christ hasn’t yet arrived with his eight-foot cross and its digital screen reading “FIND HOPE IN GOD….. IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO BE SAVED…. JESUS IS YOUR FRIEND…” The teenage girls who have come from Metarie, as they do every weekend to scope boys and wreak havoc on the throngs of tourists, are disappointed; Jesus’ friend is always the biggest hunk on the scene.

Continue reading at FiveChapters.com. (Archive.)

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"Anticipation."

Nerve.com, 2007.

Claire and I have only known each other a month. We've seen each other six times and two of them don't count: the first being the day we met at a dinner party where the host had pressed the assembled into a game of Pictionary — we'd both been caustically skeptical, drawn together by our disdain for the too-eager responses of our fellow guests' to the forced atmosphere of innocent fun; I'd gotten her number on my way out the door — and the second being an aborted meeting two days before she went home to Ohio.

Continue reading at Nerve.com. (Archives: 1, 2, 3.)

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"Late Night 1999."

Five Chapters, 2006.

Jack, he’s gonna be a football star.

Diane debutante backseat of Jacky’s car . . .

Waking up sucks. I’m going to be late for school again tomorrow, I can already tell. Just like I was late today. Just like I’m late every day.

Continue reading at FiveChapters.com. (Archive.)

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“Red Lobster."

The Chicago Tribune, September 1997.

Our father is in town for the weekend and has decided to take us all out to eat. We've been wigged out all day racing through our houses in search of our favorite blue jeans and our dressiest sweaters. We are putting on our happiest faces and wondering if he will look the same as we remember him.

To continue reading this story, buy Short People at Amazon (USA), Amazon (Canada), Amazon (UK), BN.com, Powell's, or Random House (UK).

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Joshua Furst's fiction has also appeared in the following publications.

• “Myn,” Baum’s Bazaar, September 2012.
• “Another White Guy in an Exotic Locale,” Sonora Review 59, Spring 2011.
• “The Kiss,” Conjunctions 54, May 2010.
• “Black Ice,” BOMB issue 111, Spring 2010.
• “Lesser Bohemia,” New York Tyrant 7, Fall 2009.
• “Mercy,” PEN America 9, Fall 2008.
• “Same Old, Same Old Story,” New York Tyrant 5, Fall 2008.
• “Close to Home,” Conjunctions 45, November 2005.
• “Lonely Planet,” Conjunctions 44, May 2005.
• “Local Politics,” co-written with Mike Heppner The Gannett Journal News, January 2005.
• “In Turnaround,” Conjunctions 42, May 2004.
• “She Rented Manhattan,” Crab Orchard Review, volume 5, number 1; Fall/Winter 1999.
• “Ruins,” ART2000, December 1996.