A daring voice and subject matter that sticks to my ribs. I favor downward spirals: abuse, addiction, suffering and triumph. I like desperate and sorrowful stories like Rob Roberge’s “Swiss Engineering” and “Border Radio” in Working Backwards From the Worst Moment of My Life. I love Lorrie Moore’s short stories in Birds of America (bar none). I like clever, salacious and surprising stories, daring the reader to keep turning the page, like Gina Frangello’s short story “Saving Crystal” in her collection Slut Lullabies. I dislike clichés: things we have heard before: stories about cheating husbands or abortions.

Antonia Crane
Fiction and CNF Editor
The Citron Review