It was an honor to get to guest-edit @pshares and I’m so incredibly proud of the issue we put together. With work from @jamelbrinkley @surleybassey @karenlshepard @sonyalarson @charles_yu and many more.

Please allow me a proud-parent moment where I give a quick highlight of the wonderful fiction in this issue--much of which was from writers new to me and all of which sparkles with life.

"Wandering Gliders," by Pria Anand, blew me away with its language and grace. Now that I've learned the author is also a physician, I understand how she brings such compassion to this story about love and grief.

"Maybe it's just that the days feel long and that they burn, the sensation of being trapped in an oven." I've long been a fan of @jamelbrinkley and am so grateful to be able to include his story "Comfort" in the issue--it is more timely than ever now.

"You gave us the ellipsis; we invented the rest. Not telling us anything about yourself was the best writing prompt we ever had." @joelfishbane's "Go Forth, Miss Trout!" made my breath catch the very first time I read it.

"'Is the whole thing about me?' 'Oh my darling,' she said without looking up, 'don't you know that everything I do is about you?'" Peter Gordon's "Why Didn't You Tell Me?" is hand-down one of the best mother-son stories I've ever read.

The first line of Kaitlyn Greenidge's story "Doers of the Word" is "I saw my mother raise a man from the dead," and if that doesn't hook you then who are you? It's excerpted from her forthcoming novel, which I can't WAIT to read.

"The Drought That Drowned Us" is a mere 4 pages long. "What can anyone do in 4 pages?" I wondered when I began to read. If it's @meronhadero, the answer is: quite a lot. Stunning.

"RecomMEN" by @devonrhalliday captivated and perplexed me from its first words. It is impossible to summarize or explain and I still don't know what to make of it. This is a compliment.

"You proposed with a mood ring because you knew I didn't like diamonds. The sun wasn't up yet. I still had my mouthguard in." Ashley Hand's "Gas Stations of New Mexico" unrolls in one breathless rush toward its devastating final sentence.

"You must get comfortable with NOT saving. It's the hardest lesson--I get it. But it's also the most important." I had the joy of reading @SonyaLarson's "Code W" in draft form and knew I had to have it for this issue. No exaggeration: it's changed how I think.

"Ludmilla is wrung with love for the boy. She loves him so much she could eat him. It scares her sometimes, how violent love can feel." @mvfierce's "Palace of the People" boomerangs through time and space with such grace.

"Why have a child if you were going to remain the person you'd always been? Wasn't the whole point to overwhelm and disorient each other?" I've been a fan of @karenlshepard's for years and am thrilled to have snagged her latest story.

Sometimes as an editor you read a voice that's so assured and polished it's hard to believe it's the writer's debut. And then YOU get to feel smug about discovering them. That's what happened with Lucy Shepard's "Wild Weasels." Keep an eye out for her.

"There is so much happening out here, everywhere you look. Here you just need to lift your head, open your eyes." Susan Shepherd's "Goats" was so richly immersive, I could smell the smoke in the air.

Only @charles_yu could write "M130," a story about an office printer that is actually about fatherhood and somehow manages to be both funny and devastating. (If you're familiar with his work, this sentence will make total sense to you. If you're not, you should go read it!)

Anyway, this is all to say: Please go read the Summer 2020 issue of @pshares--I love all the stories it and think you will too.