Billets Doux

by Wendy Wimmer

A lonely young professional woman deals with the pressures of everyday life by writing unsent letters to everyone and everything in her life, until she sees a man on the commuter train and falls in love.

16 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 4, 2011

About the author

My debut short story collection ENTRY LEVEL: STORIES received the 2021 Autumn House Fiction Prize, positive reviews including one from Publisher's Weekly, and a starred Kirkus review. The Washington Post called it one of the short story collections worth reading for fall 2022, and People Magazine called it "gleefully subversive" in its Best New Books feature. The collection sold out on the first day of release and is currently in its third printing less than a year into release. A selection from the book was chosen for Electric Literature's short story features by Kristen Arnett and it was the most read piece on EL in 2022. The book was also recently named to Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Short Fiction for 2022 as well as an honoree for the Society of Midland Authors 2023 Book Awards. My fiction has appeared in literary journals like Barrelhouse, Waxwing, PaperDarts, Per Contra, ANMLY, Blackbird, Drunken Boat and more, as well as receiving nominations for AWP's Intro to Journals, Best New American Voices and two Pushcart nominations. My non-fiction and journalist work has appeared in Self, Sassy, Glamour, Allure, Pink, The Believer and won numerous awards including Editor of the Year and several ASPBE's silver award for Original Web Commentary.

Reviews

[Smiley III · Rating 5 out of 5]

I *love* this story! It gets at so much: inner voice, noise in our heads, social relations, job dissatisfactions, Things We Just Can't Do Much About, and in a style and voice that is totally charming without being unserious. You'll feel like other corners of your life you'd left unarticulated are worth dwelling on after reading this one, trust me.