Sing to It: New Stories

Those who believe the short story is dead would do well to read Amy Hempel’s latest brilliant and bewildering collection, Sing to It: New Stories. At times sparse and others lush, the fifteen stories in this collection will catch your breath and leave you wanting more.

Years ago, I discovered Hempel in a creative writing class in graduate school. Now a teacher myself, I’ve taught her work several times and am constantly looking to her as a guide for how to craft short fiction that stings and stuns. And, thankfully, she never disappoints. Sing to It has all the fire of her earlier work as well as a burning, contemporary flair that pulls from the current political climate as well as from the realities of aging.

It’s hard to say what gives these stories such life, but brutal honesty comes close. In each expertly crafted work, some as short as a page, the worlds and situations Hempel presents are as complex and confounding as full novels. Read slowly to devour each and every perfect word, and then make a cup of tea and read it again. I promise you: it’s that good.