On November 9th we’re hosting a reading celebrating As If She Had a Say, the new short story collection by Jennifer Fliss! She’ll be joined by Michelle Kicherer.
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Jennifer Fliss (she/her) is the writer of the story collections As If She Had a Say (2023) and The Predatory Animal Ball (2021.) Her writing has appeared in F(r)iction, The Rumpus, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She can be found on Twitter at @writesforlife or via her website, www.jenniferflisscreative.com.
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Michelle Kicherer covers books and music for The San Francisco Chronicle and Willamette Week. She is a writing coach and teaches for Literary Arts, Portland Community College and The Attic Institute. Michelle aims to have one weird new experience everyday.
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Who has a right to tell us how to experience our grief? How to perform—or not perform—the roles society prescribes to us based on our various points of identity?
As If She Had a Say, the second story collection from Jennifer Fliss, uses an absurdist lens to showcase characters—predominantly women—plumbing their resources as they navigate misogyny, abuse, and grief. In these stories, a woman melts in the face of her husband’s cruelty; a seven-tablespoons-long woman lives inside a refrigerator and engages in an affair with the man of the house; a balloon-animal artist attends a funeral to discover he was invited as more than entertainment; and a man loses all his nouns.
Fans of Karen Russell and Carmen Maria Machado will appreciate how As If She Had a Say’s inventive narratives expose inequities by taking us on imaginative romps through domesticity and patriarchal expectations. Each story functions as a magnifying glass through which we might examine our own lives and see ourselves more clearly.
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“Inventive, witty, and bracingly true, As If She Had a Say made me laugh, made my heart drop, and made me think deeply about the ways women must navigate a world that is not made for us. These are sneaky stories that got under my skin in the way the best art can, ever expanding to reveal new layers of meaning and depth. Unforgettable and most certainly what I want to be reading now. Fliss is all-seeing, a fearless noticer, and exactly the right person to deliver us to the heart of what matters, and to ourselves.” —Chelsea Bieker, author of Godshot and Heartbroke
“The stories in As If She Had a Say are beautifully written and pack a tremendous punch. Fliss’s use of absurdism and speculative technique juxtaposed with hyperrealist details and storytelling are captivating. This is a resonant collection that doesn’t shy away from darkness but nonetheless remains relatable and poignant throughout.” —Kimberly Lojewski, author of Worm Fiddling Nocturne in the Key of a Broken Heart: Stories