Published in 2025
124 pages
Claire Polders is a Dutch author of fiction and nonfiction. Her short prose has been widely published in literary journals, including TriQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, Tin House, Electric Literature, Denver Quarterly, and Fiction International.
What is this book about?
A girl changes into a fox in self-defense. An idealist imagines what her new leader should look like, using her pets as reference. Guerrilla gardeners at dawn are sowing life-saving hope. A traveler delights in tasting European chefs. And a cruel ritual for teenage women turns into a revolution.
The fifty stories in this collection transport the reader from an Amsterdam canal to the Oaxacan coast, from a silt-streaked Venice to an imaginary world, from an Icelandic waterfall to a hall of mirrors.
Women play roles to find themselves, resist oblivion, break laws, swallow regrets, take revenge, follow their passions, and eat spiders. They’re everyday women climbing over obstacles and forging life to meet their needs. They dream of connection and find it in peculiar ways. They’re resilient. They’re brilliant. They’re… you.
