Author: Abbie Barker
-
The Shortlist for June 6, 2025
Three stories by Abbie Barker, plus Mike McHone, Jennifer Lesh Fleck, and Hannah Greer
-
Snow Legs by Abbie Barker
One morning a pair of legs perfectly sculpted out of snow, turns up in the yard in front of a young couple’s house. There’s a Twilight Zone quality about this story that drew me in extremely quickly: The legs appeared on the sidewalk after a heavy November snow. Sean and I stood at the edge…
-
Seasons of a Disappearance by Abbie Barker
A child goes missing, and a family starts to spiral into depressed desperation. The missing girl’s sister narrates the story, cataloguing the increasingly upsetting circumstances caused by not knowing the truth. The way Barker calls back to the opening paragraphs in the closing ones is striking. The summer my sister disappeared, our lawn shriveled during…
-
Couch Phase by Abbie Barker
The narrator of this story suffers from depression and can’t seem to get off the couch for any length of time. Barker writes her protagonist with such charisma, despite her distressing, spiralling behaviour. Seth isn’t aware of my couch consumption. I only couch while he’s at work, and again when we couch together after Layla’s…