Welcome to the April 2026 issue of Defenestration! It’s our first issue of 2026 and the start of our 23rd volume. You might be thinking, “Twenty-three years isn’t that long!” but let me tell you, gentle reader, that in the time Defenestration has been around, I got married, started a family, and now the oldest of my children is graduating high school. If Defenestration were a person, it would have already finished college and be living with its girlfriend in her studio apartment while trying to make it as a screenwriter and supporting itself with a minimum wage retail job. It’s kind of spooky to think about, actually.
We’ve gone content-heavy again this month, with eight short stories and six poems. You might be tempted to confirms this by looking at our past few editions, but this is still almost 50 pages of fiction and poetry, and that’s a mighty sum indeed. You’ll be happy to know that of the many Pauls that submitted to us this reading period, we did decide to publish two of them, which I think is a pretty significant win for Pauls everywhere. So what, exactly, can you expect this month? We’ve got the monstrous resurrection of a dead language, a truly impressive pair of underpants, and at least one family member who happens to be a Furby. There’s bright lights, unusual art, and bad investing advice. And that’s just a taste. Dive in to read more!
And now, using my prodigious magical abilities (and the push of a button), the Defenestration inbox is now open to poetry and short story submissions. Send us the funniest stuff you’ve got, because we really want to see it. The world has been operating under an extreme humor deficit these past few years, and we need to help keep the world in balance. And if you aren’t following us yet on social media, check us out over at Bluesky, which is our only official social media presence, or at least the only one we update regularly.
Short Stories:
Trae Stewart, “The Man Who Brought a Lighthouse to Pilates”
Tedd Hawks, “It Could be a Frog”
Jill Williams, “The Gas Tank Massacre”
Kai Swanson-Dale, “Aunt Bijou’s Birdcage”
Jay Servedio, “What the People, Whose Houses I am Breaking Into, Have to Say About the Subjectivity of Art”
Luci Kelemen, “Horribile dictu”
Rick Kast, “Forget Plastics: Think Ant Farms”
David Henson, “Nose”
Poetry:
Abby Hays, “I Kicked Your Dog Into Space”
Ed Ruzicka, “Mt. Rushmore”
Jason Boitnott, “Death”
Paul Hostovsky, “My Underpants”
Devarya Singhania, “sweet treat”
Paul Burgess, “Grilling a Suspect”
Downloadable Copy:
Defenestration, April 2026