Ben Stroud

Ben Stroud’s stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Electric Literature, One Story, the American Scholar, Boston Review, Subtropics, and other magazines. He has received residencies from Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, and recently had a story selected by Amy Hempel for New Stories from the South 2010. Holding both an MFA and a PhD from the University of Michigan, he currently teaches at the University of Alabama.

Fiction – Issue 25

Cross section of a fig on a black background

•The Clown of Rome

John was coming from St. Peter’s. Steph had never mentioned St. Peter’s in her emails, so going there had been okay. When he reached the empty street along San Spirito Hospital, he spotted the man, chubby, bearded, with thinning hair.…

Fiction – Issue 10

The Traitor of Zion

They had become something of a fascination of mine: communes cut out of the interior, new societies where all were equal and either Jesus or Liberty reigned. Some days, after reading an account of a blind prophetess leading her followers…