Summary

In beautifully melancholy stories of magical realism, the women and girls in Softie transform their bodies and test their sanity, trying to find meaning in the loneliest of places. 

A former child star haunted by a past she can't remember. An Afro-French girl with an obsession for ear lobes. A loner whose only friend is hiding a terrible, otherworldly secret. Each of these stories shares situations that are sometimes fantastical, sometimes commonplace, but always strange. From a Corsican vacation town in its off-season to hospital rooms and a seedy hotel suite in Chicago, experience the every day come fully untethered from reality.

Contents

Lobes
The Upstairs People
Vacuum Cleaner
Cherry Banana
Turtle Soup
Kitty & Tabby
Bluebeard’s First Wife
Devil’s Juice
Apples and Dresses
Melissa, Melissa, Melissa
Anita Garcia-Barnes
Softie
Age-Defying Bubble Bath with Tri-Shield Technology

Acknowledgments
 

Author

Megan Howell is a DC-based writer. She earned her MFA in fiction from the University of Maryland in College Park, winning both the Jack Salamanca Thesis Award and the Kwiatek Fellowship. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s, The Nashville Review, and The Establishment among other publications.

Reviews

“Howell’s collection . . . carves a needed space for female characters of color that move beyond the stereotypical white, beautiful, rich characters who dominate the subgenre.” 
—Kristen Gentry, author of Mama Said: Stories