Colleen

0/5 ( ratings)

“Odie Lindsey's ‘Colleen’ is both intensely focused and sprawling. It begins with twenty-two-year-old Colleen back at home in her childhood bed in her childhood bedroom in Mississippi, staring at the pink walls while a box fan blows. We tag along as she tries to adjust to civilian life after serving in Irag: she visits the VA Clinic in converted a Motel 6, a white-columned fraternity house, the VFW, her life pinned ‘between Highways 7 and 15’ as it has always been. Colleen’s parents should be worried, but they’re trying to give her some space. They don’t say anything about the cigarette smoke. We don’t know if they give her a hard time when she stays out all night or if they’re discussing her in whispers or at a normal volume. And as anyone who has been in a similar situation knows: the time when you want space most is when you need it least. Welcome to Colleen’s world. ” - Mary Miller

About the Author: Odie Lindsey’s stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, Iowa Review, Columbia, Forty Stories: New Writing from Harper Perennial, Fourteen Hills and elsewhere. This story appears in his collection, We Come to Our Senses, published by W.W. Norton this month.

About the Guest Editor: Mary Miller is the author of Big World, The Last Days of California, and Always Happy Hour: Stories, forthcoming in January 2017 from Liveright.

About the Publisher: Electric Literature is an independent publisher amplifying the power of storytelling through digital innovation. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction. Stay connected with us through our eNewsletter, Facebook, and Twitter, and find previous Electric Literature picks in the Recommended Reading archives.