In this collection of compact fictions, Nicolette Polek transports us to a gently unsettling realm inhabited by disheveled landlords, a fugitive bride, a seamstress who forgets what people look like, and two rival falconers from neighboring towns. They find themselves in bathhouses, sports bars, grocery stores, and forests in search of exits, pink tennis balls, licorice, and independence. Yet all of her beautifully strange characters are possessed by a familiar and human longing for connection: to their homes, families, God, and themselves.
Miniature catastrophes -- The rope barrier -- Coed picnic -- Winners -- Grocery story -- Garden party -- Arranged marriage -- American interiors -- A house for living -- The dance -- The nearby place -- Invitation -- Doorstop -- Imaginary museums -- Your shining trapdoor -- Slovak sceneries -- Sabbatical -- Flowers for Angelika -- Thursdays at Waterhouse -- The seamstress -- How to eat well -- Owls fall in Nitra -- Library of lost things -- Girls I no longer know -- Guest books -- Field notes -- Rest in pieces -- Pets I no longer have -- The squinter's watch -- Love language
Nicolette Polek is a fiction writer from Northeast Ohio. She is the recipient of a 2019 Rona Jaffe Writers' Award, and her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Paris Review Daily, Electric Literature, Spike Art Magazine, New York Tyrant, and elsewhere. Nicolette holds an MFA in Fiction from the University of Maryland and an MAR from Yale Divinity School. She currently teaches at SUNY Purchase and Bennington College.
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