Welcome to the Short Fiction Spotlight, a new series of reviews and discussions. As the title implies, a few times a month in this space I (and my co-conspirator, the delightful Niall Alexander) will be discussing exclusively short fiction, attempting to do some critical justice to the wealth of short stories being published throughout the field—and then some. I intend to cover a few new stories each month that strike my fancy, from various and sundry publications; I’ll also occasionally discuss an older story or two when I come across one that really catches my interest. Of course, this isn’t intended to be comprehensive—it’s a conversation about stories, not a retrospective of everything published in a given month. (And since it’s a conversation, feel free to pitch your recent short reads in the comments, too.)
For this opening installment, to give a sense of how my half of the Short Fiction Spotlight will go, I’d like to discuss one fresh story and one from somewhat longer ago: “Invisible Men” by Christopher Barzak in Eclipse Online and “Wives” by Lisa Tuttle.
[Welcome to the metaphorical parlor.]