My short story “Just Another Abortion Story” is in the new (Summer 2009) issue of The Gettysburg Review.
The story isn’t online, but here’s a tiny excerpt:
“You learn things about people in any creative writing class, especially one in which the participants write about their lives. For example, Shea Shilladay grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, organizing the neighbor children into backyard productions of “Cinderella” in which she starred, using her mother’s Miss South Carolina tiara. Her college-age daughters are named Rin and Fedham Lee. You have never known anyone with names like these or known these names exist. In fact, Shea Shilladay’s real name is Mary-Shea, but she shortened it to Shea when she went off to a college for girls in Spartanburg. You’ve never known anyone with a name like Mary-Shea, either. Girls you played with growing up in Ohio had names like Linda, Susie, Denise, Lisa. Your own name is Mary—Shea’s discard.”
I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but Dana Cann, one of my former students, also has a story in the same issue: “Caterpillar.” You may remember Dana’s inspiring guest blog piece “200 Words and a Cloud of Dust,” found here.
