Laura Nagle
Will you find the title intriguing, or will you scoff at it? Woman protagonist, late thirties, uncharacteristic craving: clues, unsubtle clues—artless, even. The author might as well have pasted the pregnant lady emoji at the top of the page and packed it in.
Might something else account for Vanessa’s change in appetite? Will Vanessa turn out to be anemic, perhaps, or suffering from an acute exacerbation of her decades-long battle with chronic FOMO? Will this be the riveting tale of Vanessa’s belated rebellion over dietary restrictions long ago imposed by her parents, who will, by now, have rediscovered the meat-and-potatoes lifestyle of their youth?
You’d read those stories and feel nothing, but this one you’ll relish, a familiar bile rising in your throat. Vanessa is pregnant, yes, but fictional—no congratulations for you to offer, no shower gifts for you to buy, no envy for you to conceal. Go ahead, Vanessa whispers to you from the page. Read. Revel in resentment.
Laura Nagle’s short fiction has recently appeared in North American Review, The Common, and The Sunlight Press. Her translation of Confidences, a novel by the Bolivian poet Adela Zamudio, is forthcoming from Bucknell University Press. She lives in Indiana and shares her home with two cats of the non-trash variety.
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Read more from Laura:
The Sunlight Press – ‘Resistance‘
The Welkin Writing Prize – ‘Story Hour‘
Here on Trash Cat Lit – ‘Edwin’s Home‘
TRASH CAT LIT 