"Outworn," published July 2026 by Dark Winter, online literary magazine
. Outworn by Ruth Latta 34 minutes ago 3 min read “For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.” Our writing instructor presented this sentence to us as an example of flash fiction. Although he was sure none of us could surpass this gem by Ernest Hemingway, he advised us to seek publication in this burgeoning market. He always chose as his examples of good writing someone from the male-dominated literary canon, though the class included ten women and two men. Earlier, he’d told us Hemingway’s philosophy of leaving out what a reader can imagine, to create a stronger story. About his one-line tale, Papa Hem had said, “It’s the saddest story ever told.” “The reader infers that some ill befell the baby,” our teacher continued. “Either it was a blighted hope, or a life nipped in the bud, or it died before it needed shoes to walk. It also It shows that, in spite of his cultivated hyper-masculine image, he was a sensitive guy.” My lip twitched. The great white hunter had definitely been caught ...