Last Woman
Sandra Furlotte
, Sindi Nika
, Gabrielle Veilleux
, Agnes Marshall
, Barry Kazimer
, Holly Elisabeth
, Jude Castillo
, PATRICIA SOPEL
, Ariane Béland
, Sarah Schwartz
, Tatiana Robinson
, Linda Leitch
, Marilyn Stanley
, Deb Philippon
, Patricia Johnson
, Emily Bickell
, VJ Hatton
, Mary Therrien
, Karen Segal
, Mary Lester
, cassandra schiemann
, Rose Hately
, Marissa Yip-Young
, Hoda Montazeri
, Catherine Booker
, Destiny Brophy
, Vera Ogot
, Noelle Walsh
, jenn ashton
, Lynn Andrews
, Margo Beredjiklian
, Carolyn McLarty
, Joanna McFarlane-Frampton
, Claire Gear
, Sharon Forzley
, Jen Amos
, Mary Danieli
, Laura Patterson
, Kevin Smith
, Carol Parchewsky
, Shena Parsons
, Naomi MacKinnon
, Lucy Cappiello
, Emmet Matheson
, Hilary Squires
, Natasa Ilic
, Amanda Schempp
, Shawna Moodie
, Shelley Gibbs
, Devon Millard
, Andrea Pole
, P. Thompson
, Laurie Burns
, Elizabeth Obermeyer
, Nicole Haldoupis
, Tanya Blake
, Benita Hartwell
, Heather Belliveau
, Katherine Koller
, Sara Conway
, Kim Cappellina
, Sarah Beaudin
, Rachel Lutz
, C. Ray
, M M English
, Deanna Radford
, Paula Ritchie
, Jennica Harper
, jane luce
, BJ Underwood
, Elaine Baptie
, joy mills
, Jenna Lyn Albert
, Randi Ann Doll
, Janet Meisner
, Janice Cournoyer
, Rosa Cross
, Rodney Cross
, Janette Galan
, Pamela Roberts Griffith
, Anne Range
, Kathleen Hutchison
, Charles Leblanc
, Joe Mitchell
, Rebecca Morris
, Robert Hykawy
, Lynn Bechtel
, Brenda Vaccarello
, Lisa Mallia
, Siobhan Monaghan
, Karen Nordrum
, Heather Sibley
, Lori Watson
, Zara Garcia-Alvarez
, Ken Gilmour
, Carl Scott
, Katie Masterson-White
, Corey Redekop
, Melissa Poremba
, Lisa Ostrowski
, Janet Miller
, Payton Phillips
, Hailey Slaviero
, Prabh Toor
, Sara Power
, Kym Marsh
, Diana Richardson
, Connie Sparrow
, Erica Atfield
, Rachel Edmonds
, Aingeal Stone
, Shonna Froebel
, Kathleen Mary Kilmer
, Joshua Lewis
, Susan Fitzgerald
, Margaret McKay
, Shireen Dada
, Denise Duvall
, Jennifer Beyak
, Nicki D'Angelo
, Susan Jang
, Maureen Brownlee
, Elyse Friedman
, Vivian Thorgeirson
, Amie Gaudet
, Cynthia Heinrichs
, Tina May
, Nancy Daoust
editor@49thShelf.com
From one of the country’s most celebrated new writers, a blistering collection of short fiction that is bracingly relevant, playfully irreverent, and absolutely unforgettable.
There’s a hole in the ozone layer. Are teenage girls to blame?
Floods and wildfires, toxic culture, billionaires in outer space, or a purse-related disaster while on mushrooms—in today’s hellscape world, there’s no shortage of things to worry about. Last Woman, the new collection of short fiction by award-winning author Carleigh Baker, wants you to know that you’re not alone. In these 13 brilliant new stories, Baker and her perfectly-drawn characters are here for you—in fact, they’re just as worried and weirded-out as everyone else.
A woman’s dream of poetic solitude turns out to be a recipe for loneliness. A retiree is convinced that his silence is the only thing that will prevent a deadly sinkhole. An emerging academic wakes up and chooses institutional violence. A young woman finds sisterhood in a strange fertility ritual, and an enigmatic empath is on a cleanse. Baker’s characters are both wildly misguided and a product of the misguided times in which we live. Through them we see our world askew and skewered—and, perhaps, we can begin to see it anew.
Carleigh Baker’s signature style is irreverent, but her heart is true—these stories delve into fear for the future, intergenerational misunderstandings, and the complexities of belonging with sharp wit and boundless empathy. With equal parts compassion and critique, she brings her clear-eyed attention to bear on our world, and the results are hilarious, heartbreaking, and startling in their freshness.
