The Shortlist: February 14, 2025


This week’s short reads

Creative nonfiction by Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Emily Austin and Anne P. Beatty, and fantastic short stories by Dana Wall, Frances Gapper, and Elvira Navarro


Non-Fiction

Snapshot of a Self by Alex Marzano-Lesnevich

I have a loved one that’s been transitioning in fits and starts for a long time, and this story really struck a chord with me. The last line is a doozy.

After you stepped over a threshold on the other side of the world, triggering the ding of the barber’s unseen bell. After you watched her rope your long hair into a braid and you didn’t cry; loop her fingers through scissors and you didn’t cry; sever that braid and you didn’t cry, and you weren’t yet taking testosterone so that wasn’t the reason you didn’t cry.

I’m not ashamed to say the story sure made me cry. It’s included in this anthology that I’m absolutely ordering. Also, I didn’t realize that Marzano-Lesnevich wrote the outanding The Fact of a Body. Turns out I was already a huge fan.

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Non-Fiction

What the Dead Leave Behind by Emily Austin

I just finished reading Austin’s novel Interesting Facts About Space, and on her website she links to this essay about home and personal identity. It’s lovely:

There is a truth to life that is difficult to access if you are not grieving or depressed. If you find you have looked behind the curtain and seen that truth, try to walk even further behind the stage. 

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Non-Fiction

Women's Hospital by Anne P. Beatty

I love the metaphor in Beatty’s story, and . I wasn’t the one doing the work when my kid was born, but so much of the description in Beatty’s story brought me right back to that day.

In birth the only plan is life, and—you realize this in the moment, or at least I did—the life in charge is not yours. The building must come down. The baby must be born. Never mind the ripping.

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Fiction

The Last Lipstick Factory by Dana Wall

A melancholy love story about a world losing colour:

First, the sky forgot how to hold blue. It started at the horizons, a slow leaching of color like wet paper left in sun. Then the fade crept upward, until even noon became an exercise in shades of ash. Birds flew through increasingly monochrome heavens, their own feathers dulling in sympathy.

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Fiction

Saturday Girl by Frances Gapper

A light and surprising ghost story about a kid who works weekends in the bakery:

I had a Saturday job at the haunted bakery, where they can’t keep a Saturday girl for love nor money. But it wasn’t haunted when I worked there.Thirteen and a young thirteen, I spoiled their window display by putting cakes in the wrong places. Or tripped non-accidentally while carrying trays so I could gorge on the smashed creamy delights, eclairs being my favourite.

This story goes to some unexpected places. Gapper pulls some fun tricks here.

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Fiction

Images of Women by Elvira Navarro

A woman’s father tries to adjust after his wife’s death. Outwardly he’s living it up, but not so much behind closed doors. This is an excerpt from Navarro’s new book The Voices of Adriana that I’m defintely going to pick up.

 In addition to ‘sweetheart’, there was the ‘This time I think I’ve found the one for me’. ‘What’s-her-name is a darling, I think she’s the one for me,’ he’d told Adriana on ten, twenty, thirty occasions, with the phone or computer at hand, ready to start a new conversation with the next headless woman. ‘Just in case,’ he always replied when she objected to the contradiction involved in saying he’d found the one for him and then immediately linking up with someone else.

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All featured authors

Abby ManzellaAD SchweissAlex DiFrancescoAlex Marzano-LesnevichAllison Field BellAmber BairdAmelia GrayAmorak HueyAmy DeBellisAndrea BishopAndrea CavedoAndrew Bertainaandrew rutledgeAnnalisa CrawfordAnne P. BeattyAnne PanningArthur H. MannersArthur MandalAvitus B. CarleBarlow AdamsBeth KanterBeth ShermanBethany CutkompBrandon ForinashBrian D. HinsonBrian EvensonCaleb BetheaCamara S. GarrettCandace Leigh CoulombeCarly AlaimoCarmen Maria MachadoCasey McFadzeanCatherine LaceyCecily CarverCharlie RogerschatgptChris ScottChristian EscalonaChristine H. ChenCiara AlfaroClare ReddawayColeman BigelowColin AlexanderCorey FarrenkopfDana WallDavid WatersDerek FisherDouglas A WrightElda OrozcoElise JeanmarieElissa LashElvira NavarroEmily AustinEmily HampsonEmily RinkemaEmily WaughErik CederblomErin StriffErin WoodEvan HannonFrances GapperFrancesca LeaderGarret CroweGary FinneganGraham MortHannah GregoryHannah SmartJ. Haase VetterJ. Malcolm GarciaJ.R. DawsonJack B BedellJake MaynardJamey GallagherJamie GillJay McKenzieJeanann VerleeJeff FriedmanJennifer PintoJisun ParkJoel Henry LittleJohn HaggertyJordan HarperJosh RankJP RelphJude DoyleK. A. PolzinKara OakleafKaren HeulerKate ArnoldKate AxefordKatherine PlumhoffKatie ten HagenKaty GoforthKeegan LawlerKelli Dianne RuleKelly RobsonKevin Light-RothKevin SterneKevin WilsonKim FuKim MagowanKristen ArnettKyla HaningtonLaura ZapicoLena ValenciaLillie E. FranksLincoln MichelLindsay ComerM.A. BoswellM.E. ProctorMadeleine VigneronMarco VisciolaccioMarijean OldhamMarilyn DuarteMark IfansonMary HeitkampMegan CumminsMeghan Louise WagnerMichelle DrozdickNathan LeslieNick EkkizogloyP.R. O’LearyPatrick FealeyPete ProkeschPhebe JewellRobin BeckerRuth BrandtS.A. GreeneSadie Sartini GarnerSamantha Xiao CodySara McKinneySarah GerardSarah Lynn HurdSarah MullensSarah PerrinSophie HamptonSpencer NitkeyStephen DixonSudha BalagopalSumitra SingamSusan PeraboTaisiya KoganTam EastleyTed ChiangTerese SvobodaTimothy ReillyTracie Adams