The word “fiction” usually evokes wizards and spaceships, under-the-sea adventures and bears with owl heads. By simply removing the three-letter prefix from the word “non-fiction,” you step from a world based in relative fact to one that supposedly isn’t.

So here we are with our first-ever Fiction Issue, highlighted by eight special pages of true, state-of-the art, totally made-up stories, the winners of our first Short Fiction & Poetry Contest. We mix that with more of the traditional creative non-fiction stuff — the truth with a dash of what we’ll call “flare.” The funny thing is, between true fact and absolute fiction there exists this fascinating grey area, a place where we all spend quite a bit of time, from the stories we tell at the dinner table to our constantly shifting worldview. Because, if you think about it, there is only one truth. One fiction. Yours.