Alethea Black is the partner of my teacher and thesis advisor David Gates, and when her collection of short stories I Knew You'd Be Lovely came out, my best friend Emma Emma Emma read it and raved about it, and I didn't take her suggestion to read it until the other day. Very rarely do I find a collection of stories I read from cover to cover, (and in order.) Alethea writes happy endings! I think there is an idea that if something is literary it can't be happy or hopeful, it has to end grim, and dark, and it has to suck your soul while you're reading it. But Alethea's stories aren't just happy, and hopeful, they are also complex and her characters are, often times, really struggling.
I was particularly obsessed with the first three: "That Of Which We Cannot Speak" (New Years party, romance,) "The Only Way Out Is Through" (Father takes troubled son on camping trip,) "Good in a Crisis" (Former student tracks down high school english teacher, romance) and the title story "I Knew You'd Be Lovely" (too good to summarize.)
She has excerpts for all of them online at her website.
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