Posted by Tobias Carroll

For the last month of 2011, we’ll be looking back at the year in Sunday Stories: providing excerpts from, and links to, some of the stories and essays featured on Vol.1 this year. First up: excerpts from longer works, forthcoming or out now; tales of familial discontent; and accounts of real estate. If you’d like to view the complete list or submit a story or essay for consideration, please do so.

“It was then I also found I was drawn to pretty things, small things, things that smelled of sleep. Like cats on blankets. Or girls on blankets. Later, women on blankets. Essentially, anything on a blanket I was drawn to and it didn’t necessarily have to be sleeping. Just on a blanket, carpet, bed or couch. Prone. In a prone position. Recumbent like she was the second time I found her.”
Mel Bosworth, “I Found,” from the novel Freight (January 9, 2011)

“Sleeping was always a struggle for me. I think it started with the International Foods Suisse Mocha café my mom fed me before bed. “Drink it. It’ll keep you short but kills the hunger.” I played with the little particles of light that appeared in the moments between bright and dark. The zillions of tiny dots that danced in the air. I smushed them together in my mind forming images of animals and spiders, sometimes tiny elephants like the “E” on my alphabet poster. They walked in a Noah’s Ark procession up and down my mother’s arm. I stared wide eyed- trying to prevent myself from swatting them. I used them to keep myself awake, even then terrified of a loss of control.”
Melissa Ann Chadburn, “The Brother” (May 15, 2011)

“avery turned to the back. he read a restaurant review. the restaurant review was about a new york-style bagel shop. the new york-style bagel shop was in a loft district. the lofts sold for approximately $245,000 to $385,000 according to the article in ‘texas monthly.’

“dallas is like atlanta,” avery said.”
Josh Spilker, “atlanta midtown samba station (excerpt)” (July 10, 2011)
Spilker’s novel ambient Florida Position is out now.

“As both a leader and a follower, I find myself stuck in a lifelong game of Simon Says, sometimes leading, sometimes following, always getting off. Every move I make is based on this game. Simon says do this, Simon says do that, do this. It’s this tart infatuation with an acknowledgement of form, an approach to form, a swatting of form around (with paws not fists/teasing not torture), but never arriving at a full acceptance of form despite eventually conceding to something that looks quite like a form every time, over and over again — every. single. time.”
Chris Leo, “We Must Move Forward to Regress (A Jerk’s Defense of This Book)” (March 6, 2011)

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