Title: An Anthology of Rural Stories by Writers of Color, 2025
Editor: Deesha Philyaw
Publisher: Eastover Press
Pages: 280
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2
This is the 3rd edition of
this collection of short stories. The guest editor, Deesha Phillyaw, has
selected 16 out of a shortlist of 40 submissions. Most of the stories have been
previously published in literary journals.
I appreciated the peek into the lives of
other people and got a taste of how vast and expansive life in rural areas is,
and how we, from our limited urban perspective, end up seeing rural life in
ways that are reductive.
The Kitchen and Beantown show the sullying
of childhood innocence by introducing them too early and very harshly to the
reality of the world around them, and the wicked things that adults indulge in.
Wild Hogs on the Backside of Yonder and There’s the Indian! are
powerful attempts on the part of ordinary people to fight against negative
influences.
1) Uncle Tito – Noah Alvarez: Uncle Tito,
sober for eight months after 26 years of hard drinking, has lost everything he
owned and is now crashed out in the home of his sister, her boyfriend, and her
young son, the unnamed basketball playing school kid who is the narrator of the
story. On the day of a big playoff game, Uncle Tito bequeaths his Jesus piece
necklace to his nephew for good luck. Something very good and something very
bad happens on this day.
2) The Kitchen – Victoria Ballesteros: The
unnamed narrator, the youngest of nine siblings, lets us into her mother’s
kitchen, which bursts with generosity despite the family’s poverty. Her father
gets her a rabbit, who she loves with all her heart, until one day when it
disappears.
This story is a coming-of-age experience
for the child who learns so many things, a reminder of the helplessness of her
mother who cares for the family but is not cared for in return, and the
untrustworthiness and vile nature of her father and his three brothers. We get
a glimpse of the life they live, with large families, hard work, especially on the
part of the women, meagre comforts, if any, yet rooted in faith and belief.
3) The
After-Brother, the Before-Brother, and the Now-Brother: The Very Small Telling
of the Time-Triplets of Honey – Exodus Oktavia Brownlow: The story is set
in Missouri in 1938 and is written in the first-person present tense PoV of the
three named in the title.
This was the shortest story in this
anthology, and referenced post-partum stress, and how the mother learns to be a
mother.
4) Wild
Hogs on the Backside of Yonder – CG Crawford: In a very small town in
Alabama, old farmers are being forced out of their farms and lands by the
predatory McGrangers. They are forced to sell acres and acres of land for a
dollar an acre. Old man River lives alone. He has lost his beloved wife and
daughter. Two of his kids have moved out and don’t call him. The McGrangers
poison River’s dogs and leave the bodies of dead hogs in his field to harass
him into leaving.
Previously published, this story ended
too early. I would have liked to read about what happens next, even though the
conclusion seems foregone.
5) Dollhouses
– Monic Ductan: An elderly woman, who collects dollhouses, helps a little boy
who had just been jumped by an older kid. She takes him home and gives him a
sandwich, and he plays with a dollhouse that she has in her kitchen.
This story had potential, but it ended
too soon.
6) Middling
– LaTanya McQueen: Candace and Martin, married, no kids, are plodding along in
their marriage, when Martin becomes increasingly enamoured and obsessed with
the Civil War, particularly the Confederate side. He begins to spend their
savings on books relating to the period, and weapons and even a Confederate
uniform, choosing to live more and more in the pretend-world than in reality.
7) Beantown
– Jennifer Morales: A 5yo girl, Elina, receives her very first lesson in
prejudice, both the subtle and the blatant kind, through a very icky
experience.
This story is written from the
first-person PoV of a 5yo kindergarten student. It captures the child’s voice
very effectively, through the bad grammar and misspelling, and the childish
observations.
8) There’s
the Indian! – Ruby Murray: Patrick Xhuda, proud Indian from the Xhuda
tribe, is upset that his beloved Red Hawk town, built on Reservation land, is
slowly being taken over by a white woman, Bonnie Campbell, whose grandparents
cheated Patrick’s grandparents and stole their money. When she opens a hugely
popular restaurant in town, he decides to eat at her restaurant, dressed in his
traditional costume and head gear, just to make a statement. He cannot prevent
her progress, but he can stand up and show up for his tribe.
9) En
Plena Vista – Michael Pacheco: Special Agent Pete Varela is sent to a rural
farm from where the DEA has tracked two homing devices. There Varela finds an
old farmer couple, the O’Briens, who have been paid $1000 just to have two
trailer trucks parked on their land. On opening the trucks, Varela finds a dead
cow in each of them. Satisfied that there is nothing amiss or illegal, Varela
closes the case, but then the trucks disappear.
This is a tale that the reader may find
amusing, but not if they are related to law enforcement.
10) Beer
& Butter Sauce – Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera: The unnamed teenage
narrator, abandoned by her mother and having no idea who her father is, waits
for her mother to show up while her grandparents who have raised her prepare a
barbecue for her.
11) Houses
Acting Like Cars – Sarp Sozdinler: A young 16yo girl, Blue, whose mother
has died without revealing the identity of her father, gets a letter from
Social Services, and sets out in search of her father.
I couldn’t quite figure out this one.
12) Ithaca
Is Never Far – Sejal Shah: The unnamed narrator, an America-born child of
Indian immigrants, is trying hard to find somebody like her to date. She finds
a guy she likes but he is unwilling to consider the possibility of a
relationship because Ithaca, where she lives, is very far.
The story captures well the condition of
being suspended between two cultures, the dual nature of yearning for
something, while wanting to be a part of something else. The story was
beautiful, but the rural aspect was not quite evident. Perhaps Ithaca is a
rural area; I am unfamiliar with American geography.
13) How
to Survive a Black Hole – Dawn Tasaka Steffler: Twenty-two years ago, the
unnamed narrator’s older brother killed himself. Now she is back in her
childhood home to pack up the family’s belongings, and move her mother to a
care facility closer to her own home, and lock up the house.
The black hole in this beautiful story
is both literal and figurative.
14) The
House Always Wins – Sara Streeter: Tess comes to Toano to meet
Garrett, her white boyfriend of one year. Garrett has moved to the house of his
childhood friend Bobby, whose parents, like Garrett’s own, have Confederate
sympathies. The implied racism makes Tess, who is Asian, uncomfortable. At
Bobby’s house, Tess feels increasingly uncomfortable with Bobby’s behaviour and
his habits. He has a drinking problem, and no concept of boundaries.
This one was very good.
15) Field Methods – Lisa Wartenberg
Velez: A young college student, Miriam, misses her dead father and resents
the mother who is trying hard to take care of them both. She gets an internship
at the forensic department to observe the effect of nature, natural predators
and pathogens on dead bodies.
The writing was rich and earthy.
16) Princeton – Robert Yune: My access
to this collection expired before I could start reading this story.
(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)
