Eclectica Magazine's 30th Anniversary

"A Thanksgiving" or "Over Fifty Billion Kafkas Served" will be included in Eclectica Magazine's print anthology of best fiction celebrating thirty years of publishing online. Tom Dooley's magazine will publish a similar anthology of poetry.

Tyler Dempsey's Best of the Bests

Award-winning essayist Tyler Dempsey placed "A Day's Worth" (Eclectica Magazine) at the top of his Best of the Bests for 2025.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're thankful for you as well as good news from Eclectica Magazine.

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it didn't kill brain cells

"Now I had customers up the [caboose]. Bosses, too. Welcome to Hustle-for-a-buck, USA. In the near term, the [redacted] at the six-top was screaming for refills like he intended to spray his hose all over his mother-in-law after Friday brunch. He pulled a "Sir, please" the first two times, and then shifted to no voice or eye contact with a triple spoon clink against his water glass after that. Fucking annoying, yeah, but all I had to do was hustle to the table and refill the cup. It was work. Straightforward. My first job of the day, and it didn't kill brain cells I needed for my next gig."

~~ from "A Day's Worth" by Alex Kudera

terminal since May

"People buy things because they're depressed. They have free time. If they're employed, they're lost at work. All they got left is death and Internet, cable TV or kids if they're lucky. Jim across the street croaked last month. An aunt in Pennsauken has been terminal since May. There's something soothing about paying monthlies to know it's all taken care of. Older folks are depressed, and they don't want or need any more things in their homes. A monthly reminder they are a good person who cares about others—family or friends they'll be leaving behind. That's what they want. And, if they pay more, they assume they'll be getting more."

~~ from "A Day's Worth" by Alex Kudera

A Day's Worth

The new issue of Eclectica Magazine includes "A Day's Worth" by Alex Kudera.

Twenty-Two Short Stories and One Poem by Alex Kudera

SHORT STORIES

"The Golden Snot," serious-lit, August 19, 2026 (forthcoming)

"Seven Twenty-Five," Loser IV, July 27, 2026

"Scout," Loser II, June 28, 2026

"The Waiter," Loser I, June 2, 2026

"Going to Hell," Russian trans. from Sergey Katukov, East West Literary Forum, Jan. 28, 2026

"A Separate Piece," Citywide Lunch, December 8-12, 2025

"A Day's Worth," Eclectica Magazine, July 2025

"Chinese Sun," Meniscus, Volume 12, Issue 2, pages 139 to 146, November 2024

"Going to Hell," Soyos Books, November 11, 2023

"An Amazing Turn," New Oxford Review, January-February 2023

"On the Plane," in Zeitgeist: Stories Capturing Different Eras in the Vast Expanse of Time, December 2022

"Early Morning Train," Humans of the World, June 2022

"An Old Friend Called," Lighthouse Weekly, March 2022

"A Thanksgiving," Eclectica Magazine, July 2021

"Bombing From Above," Heavy Feather Review, June 2020

"Over Fifty Billion Kafkas Served," Eclectica Magazine, October 2019 "Awash in Barach and Bolano," The Agonist, July 2019

"About Your Status," Monkeybicycle, June 2019 "Free Car," Heavy Feather Review, September 2018 "My Father's Great Recession," Heavy Feather Review, March 2018

"Frade Killed Ellen," Dutch Kills Press, July 2015

"Turquoise Truck," Mendicant Bookworks, September 2015

"The Betrayal of Times of Peace and Prosperity," Gone Dog Press, February 2011

POETRY

"Conversation Slam," Deadbeat Anti Lit Magazine: Volume 1, July 5, 2026 

diamond ring

"At this point, I'm wide awake, even alert, and I begin to see myself past midnight and standing at a rope for discount jewelry. I turn to my left. I can see all the way down the aisle to the toy section. It's a mob scene. Crowds rummage through blue and pink plastic. Shelves in disarray. Grasping, pushing, shoving. An occasional moment of kindness. Our turn arrives. I stumble forward, almost fall, when a store employee releases the yellow cord. I have to recover quickly as everyone around me is already on the move. But I suppose there is a God because it seems my item—the diamond ring—is not the most desired one. It must be too expensive for the midnight Wal-Mart shopper. There are only three of us, and there are four rings. Just like that, I have one. But now I have to escape from the store."

~~ from "A Thanksgiving," by Alex Kudera

     Eclectica Magazine, July / August 2021

American holiday

"My client shut the grill cover and led us off the porch. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,300 points over the next three days. Within two months, my new-home inquiries dropped to zilch. You could say that's the life of a commission-based independent contractor, or you could say we were screwed. Two different clients took me to court to undo their deal and get their money back. That's when our slow demise became a race to the bottom. It was hard to adjust to our family's 'new normal,' so we spent as much in our first six months of living off savings and home equity as we did the next year. Eighteen months after falling through the floor, we'd gathered our wits enough to squint through the darkness and climb out of the mess we'd made."

~~ from "A Thanksgiving," by Alex Kudera

     Eclectica Magazine, July / August 2021

Running for the Bus

Running for the Bus: Life and Love in the time of COVID

by Thomas J. Hubschman