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A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2019 Author Tamiko Beyer
“The themes of social justice, the magic of water, and the power of queer love to create a different world—these are themes that I return to again and again in my writing and my life.”

PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2019
Last DaysWe Come ElementalBlack Warrior ReviewDenver QuarterlyThe Georgia ReviewLiterary HubThe RumpusHyphenDusie
Black Warrior Review.
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“Safe is an interpretation”
—Kate Greenstreet, Young Tambling
We didn’t expect the eagerness that filled us on the last days of empire. For what, we couldn’t exactly say.
Metal glistened on the streets in the hot September days. The sun no longer a dandelion; the sun most definitely a muzzle. When it set, the Corporation—keen to kill the dark—flipped the switch.
Then, the marble facades of buildings were suddenly up-lit, streetlights swirled incandescent, and thousands of people hurtled through the furnace of synthesized laughter, pop songs, and an unlimited desire for all.
Some of us were on the edges, blocking out the canned sounds and lights as best we could. Building something new, something old. We could feel the northern half of our planet begin to tilt away from the sun.
I am on the cusp of change, and the curve is shifting fast
It was an experience and then it was a memory. And then a system of belief, a way to navigate the dissolving world.
I wanted to become more salt-wind, less reflection. To become quiet enough to hear the ancestors.
The Art of WarYoung TamblingKingdomAnamaliaCitizen
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A Conversation With Best Debut Short Stories 2020 Author Shannon Sanders
“Every interaction between adult siblings presents a chance to get more clarity about the past. Hopefully, we’re able to seize at least some of these chances.”
A Conversation With Best Debut Short Stories 2020 Author Matthew Jeffrey Vegari
“I wrote much of the story listening to jazz, including the title song, for inspiration on how to shift without imposing too much of a structure.”
A Conversation With Best Debut Short Stories 2020 Author Willa C. Richards
“I wanted to portray the pain of trying to reach someone who is inside their own, unreachable pain, and how this often puts untenable pressure on relationships.”
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A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2019 Author A.B. Young
“For me, I guess fairytales are where I am simultaneously most at home, and most at odds with the world around me.”
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2019 Author Doug Henderson
“Some stories just flow out of you and you try to keep up as you write them. This story was not like that.”
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2019 Author Jade Jones
“The narration style feels very conversational to me. I liked how second-person really tries to make the reader part of the story as well.”