Reviewed by the Pedestal Magazine and by Montserrat Review |
Enhanced Gravity: More Fiction by Washington Area Women ISBN 0-931181-20-8 500pp. ed. by Richard Peabody featuring: Stephanie Allen, Christina Bartolomeo, Kate Blackwell, Hildie S. Block, Lisa Boylan, Carole Burns, Susan Coll, Jennifer Cutting, Ramola D., J. H. Diehl, C. M. Dupré, Herta Feely, Robin Ferrier, Sara Fisher, Lee Fleming, Amy Fries, Dorothy Hickson, M.H. Johnson, Alma Katsu, Wendi Kaufman, Susan Land, E. J. Levy, Meena Arora Nayak, Vanessa Orlando, Michele Orwin, Sibbie O'Sullivan, Saideh Pakravan, Ginger Park, Colleen Pecorelli, Suzanne Picard, Judith Podell, Liz Poliner, Judy Pomeranz, Stephanie Siciarz, Rozanne Gooding Silverwood, Julia Slavin, Rose Solari, Sally Steenland, Venus Thrash, Julie Wakeman-Linn, Sarah Louise Williams, C. Jenise Wriston, and more. Cover art by Jody Mussoff. "Enhanced Gravity is proof of the variety of talents and passions
to be found in DC. With its takes on sex, death, birth, love, the pains
of youth, the pains of old age, infidelity, abiding fidelity, this
anthology has something for every mood, and reading the stories together
provides a deepened sense of the interior and exterior contours of
this city." What do women write? These stories shout, Everything, from
as many points of view. Think potluck of pungent diversity. Think
rough-edged visions, as opposed to neatly hemmed samplers from Culture,
Inc. Enhanced Gravity surprises and entertains; it
horrifies and hurts. And it enlightens, by modeling a rich,
inclusive world. This collection captures our many longings in vivid, gut-deep prose.
The stories call to us, beckon us like Stephanie Allen's "pile of coats,
[their] riot of textures from silk linings to poplin serge to wool,
waiting for us to dive in and roll around in them." |
