Published January 31, 2022
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In her debut collection of stories, Zawinski melds flash fiction with memoir. She entertains, piques curiosity, even exacts revenge in characters enjoyable to come to know, whether through love or through hate, all cast on a smooth and well-crafted journey that invites the reader to return to its pages again and again. “Andrena Zawinski presses pause, and purity appears: a long ago encounter with a friend chanting, a much younger lover who becomes a mature woman in 300 words. More social documentaries than pure fiction, these stories record zeitgeist—lesbian zeitgeist, baby boomer zeitgeist, coal country trading-sex-for-bread zeitgeist. The narrator in the final story confesses: ‘I am a convicted eavesdropper.’ That's the real pleasure in Plumes—getting the skinny the strictly forbidden way by listening to what you're not supposed to hear.” —Judy Juanita, The High Price of Freeways, Tartts Fiction Award “Reading Andrena Zawinski’s terrific flash fiction/memoirs about love, travel, mishaps, drinking, and searching is like sitting down at a table at your favorite coffee shop with your best friend and listening to her unfolding the best and wildest stories of her life. You never want her to stop!” —John Guzlowski, Echoes of Tattered Tongues, Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal “Andrena Zawinski's powerful imagery, from ‘the kewpie doll draped in party beads’ to ‘a candle-toothed smile,’ is as strong in this collection of flash fiction as in her award-winning poetry. The personality and panache of the globe-trotting woman at these tales' centers, savoring a glass of fine wine as much as she does new locales, imbue these stories with their particular she-ness. Pour yourself a glass of your favorite to accompany the gorgeous writing of Plumes, which will certainly garner its own accolades.” —Jan Steckel, The Horizontal Poet, Lambda Literary Award |