I know that if I tell you where I live and also say that this winter has been a tough one because of the weather, you will laugh it off and question my credibility, or perhaps my sanity, so I will not tell you where I live, but simply state that I am so ready for spring to arrive. I am ready to open my backdoor and allow my boys to run around the yard barefoot and to wake up with the sun. I am ready to enjoy all the green that this wettest winter in recent history will produce, and though I will be struggling to breathe from seasonal allergies, I cannot wait to see what blooms and transitions us from the death of winter to the new life of spring.

One of the saving graces of this dreary winter has been the influx of phenomenal writing we experienced in both the flash and micro categories. It was a joy to return to Submittable each day to read through new submissions. As we contemplated our selections, we found ourselves with too many choices, too many stellar works to consider. This is a wonderful problem to have. When it was time to make the hard decisions, I opted for stories that showed risk, turned the ordinary details of life into metaphor, and illustrated external representations of internal conflict.

I think I have told you before, but I love encountering the unexpected in my reading. I try to teach my boys about finding the hidden joys of a day, the magic in the details. Each of this issue’s selections contain a bit of that magic all centered around the happy accident of a uniting theme of renewal and new life, which is exactly the kind of fiction to usher in spring. I sincerely hope you enjoy them.

Elizabeth De Arcos
Senior Fiction Editor
The Citron Review