A Bright and Pleading Dagger

Fiction. Flash Fiction. A dazzling and incisive collection of twelve flash fictions illuminating the varied lives of women and girls, Nicole Rivas' A BRIGHT AND PLEADING DAGGER immerses readers in its subjects' complex experiences with desire, selfhood, and omnipresent danger. A pizza shop worker goes on a series of visceral dates with her gynecologist; a slighted lover coughs up a forgotten childhood toy; an artist unknowingly becomes the subject of an intrusive admirer's lust; a woman has a heated staring contest with the world's oldest man. Powerful and precise, Rivas' stories highlight the unreality within the real, simultaneously evoking humor, outrage, and awe. A BRIGHT AND PLEADING DAGGER is the winner of the 12th Annual Rose Metal Press Short Short Chapbook Contest, judged by Rigoberto González. This limited edition chapbook features two-color letterpress covers and specialty endpapers.