Nine
If Tess takes ballet lessons, Meredith will give Tess tights and toe shoes, and marry Tess’s father. She will stay forever.
Fiction 2008
In This Issue
Stories by Wendell Berry, Mark Fabiano, Cristina Henríquez, Aryn Kyle, Jess Row, Julie Schumacher, plus new voices in American fiction.
Fiction
Stand By Me
What Jarrat had in his life were sorrow, stubbornness, silence, and work. So when his sons needed him most, their daddy didn’t have much to offer.
Patient, Female
I don’t let them forget anything. I tell them to remember it alphabetically: breasts, cervix, ovaries, uterus. Lying on my back, I take them through it, one exam at a time.
The Second Coming of Gray Badger
“Dad’s real proud of you,” I said. “Said it’s too bad you’re a thief, though. You could have done something good.”
Carmen Elcira: A (Love) Life
“You left because you thought I was weak,” Joseph said. “What you didn’t know was that you were the person who was going to make me strong.”
We Are All Businessmen
Ranil wanted a company scholarship for his son, and would do what he must to make the American executive feel well cared for.
Obituary
The marina had a proposition for him. They wanted him to leave, and they were willing to pay him to do it.
Amritsar
Tom wanted him to be prepared, to know what he was up against. But Gurukha didn’t want a pistol in his house. He wanted to move on, to be done with India, and with Amritsar.
The Poet's Poet
Mary Jo Salter talks about her new collection, Phone Call to the Future; editing The Norton Anthology of Poetry; and her early days as an assistant poetry editor at The Atlantic.
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My Life In Sales
A month of living in a suitcase, eating in airports, and cracking your forehead open against hotel-room walls in the middle of the night often comes to very little. But the only thing worse than going on book tour is not going.
