Let Me Out Here: Stories

In her debut collection, Emily W. Pease is at work redefining the Southern short story. Let Me Out Here explores the underbellies and strange desires of our neighbors, our loved ones, ourselves. A co-ed takes up with a mysterious cab driver; a young boy and his family follow their fundamentalist patriarch on a journey to a healing waterfall; a mother sets her balcony on fire after an awkward family dinner; a woman befriends the snakes her preacher boyfriend keeps in their shed. Spread over the Bible Belt landscapes of East Tennessee, North Carolina, and West Virginia, the characters here find themselves at crossroads or alone on an empty street at night. With Let Me Out Here, Pease joins the ranks of Mary Gaitskill, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Kelly Link, and adds to their tradition a deft, singular style and a voice as darkly funny as it is exacting. Let Me Out Here is the 2018 winner of the C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize.