Reading feels likes eavesdropping on an electric historical moment from a secret perch just above the kitchen table. “Sharp, tender, and precise-full of wit and pleasure.

“Sexy and radical and intimate.” - Miranda July, author of The First Bad Man I adored this book.” - Zadie Smith, author of Swing Time She speaks of the many-sided lives of black women with care and intelligence. Collins’ stories are passionate and light-footed, angry but also delicate - they move like quicksilver. “From the first page you know you’re in the hands of an exceptional writer. Collins’s work seamlessly integrates the African-American experience in her characters’ lives, creating rich, devastatingly familiar, full-bodied men, women, and children who transcend the symbolic, penetrating both the reader’s head and heart.īoth contemporary and timeless, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? is a major addition to the literary canon, and is sure to earn Kathleen Collins the widespread recognition she is long overdue. In “Only Once,” a woman reminisces about her charming daredevil of a lover and his ultimate-and final-act of foolishness. In “The Uncle,” a young girl who idolizes her handsome uncle and his beautiful wife makes a haunting discovery about their lives.

Humorous, poignant, perceptive, and full of grace, Kathleen Collins’s stories masterfully blend the quotidian and the profound in a personal, intimate way, exploring deep, far-reaching issues-race, gender, family, and sexuality-that shape the ordinary moments in our lives. Now available in Ecco’s Art of the Story series: a never-before-published collection of stories from a brilliant yet little known African American artist and filmmaker-a contemporary of revered writers including Toni Cade Bambara, Laurie Colwin, Ann Beattie, Amy Hempel, and Grace Paley-whose prescient work has recently resurfaced to wide acclaim. Named one of the most anticipated books of the fall by the Huffington Post, New York, The Boston Globe, Lit Hub, and The Millions Named a Best Book of 2016 by VICE, Elle, Nylon, Publishers Weekly and NPR “Sexy and radical and intimate.” -Miranda July

“From the first page you know you're in the hands of an exceptional writer… I adored this book.” -Zadie Smith

Kathleen collins short stories