What do you think?
Rate this book
The Bottomless Pit
You might wonder, at first, how the brilliant, nimble Sharma Shields has terrified and transfixed you so, because there aren’t any of the cheap tricks of childhood movies here—there’s no blood or guts, there is no man with a chainsaw chasing a girl. It’s just a boy and his dog and the father who cares for them. Reading “The Bottomless Pit,” it’s the subtler, unknowable dangers and mysteries and unanswered questions of the world that nibble at the corners of your mind. - Caroline Zancan, Associate Editor, Henry Holt
About the Author: Sharma Shields holds a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Washington and an M.F.A. from the University of Montana. She is the author of the short story collection Favorite Monster and the winner of the 2011 Autumn House Fiction Prize. Her work has appeared widely in such literary journals as The Kenyon Review and The Iowa Review and has garnered numerous awards, including the Tim McGinnis Award for Humor and a grant from Artist Trust. Shields has worked in independent bookstores and public libraries throughout Washington State and now lives in Spokane with her husband and children.
About the Guest Editor: Founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt, Henry Holt and Company is one of the oldest trade publishers in the United States. The company publishes many acclaimed and best-selling authors, including Bill O’Reilly, the two-time Man Booker Prize-winner Hilary Mantel, Nobel Prize-winner Herta Müller, Pulitzer Prize-winner Rick Atkinson, Paul Auster, John Banville as Benjamin Black, Philip Caputo, Andy Cohen, Billy Crystal, Sheila Heti, Tony Horwitz, Erica Jong, and Del Quentin Wilber, as well as scores of other authors in the fields of literary fiction, history, biography, politics, current events, science, psychology, and mysteries and thrillers. In its century-and-a-half history, it has published books by writers whose work endures through the ages, from the poetry of Robert Frost and classic novels by Robert Louis Stevenson, to bestsellers by Erich Fromm and Norman Mailer. Henry Holt publishes books under the imprints Henry Holt, Metropolitan Books, Times Books, and Holt Paperbacks.
About the Publisher: Electric Literature is an independent publisher amplifying the power of storytelling through digital innovation. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction.
About the Author: Sharma Shields holds a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Washington and an M.F.A. from the University of Montana. She is the author of the short story collection Favorite Monster and the winner of the 2011 Autumn House Fiction Prize. Her work has appeared widely in such literary journals as The Kenyon Review and The Iowa Review and has garnered numerous awards, including the Tim McGinnis Award for Humor and a grant from Artist Trust. Shields has worked in independent bookstores and public libraries throughout Washington State and now lives in Spokane with her husband and children.
About the Guest Editor: Founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt, Henry Holt and Company is one of the oldest trade publishers in the United States. The company publishes many acclaimed and best-selling authors, including Bill O’Reilly, the two-time Man Booker Prize-winner Hilary Mantel, Nobel Prize-winner Herta Müller, Pulitzer Prize-winner Rick Atkinson, Paul Auster, John Banville as Benjamin Black, Philip Caputo, Andy Cohen, Billy Crystal, Sheila Heti, Tony Horwitz, Erica Jong, and Del Quentin Wilber, as well as scores of other authors in the fields of literary fiction, history, biography, politics, current events, science, psychology, and mysteries and thrillers. In its century-and-a-half history, it has published books by writers whose work endures through the ages, from the poetry of Robert Frost and classic novels by Robert Louis Stevenson, to bestsellers by Erich Fromm and Norman Mailer. Henry Holt publishes books under the imprints Henry Holt, Metropolitan Books, Times Books, and Holt Paperbacks.
About the Publisher: Electric Literature is an independent publisher amplifying the power of storytelling through digital innovation. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction.
23 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 8, 2015
2 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Sharma Shields
9 books186 followersSharma Shields is the author of a short story collection, Favorite Monster, and two novels, The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac and The Cassandra. Sharma’s short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Electric Lit, Catapult, Slice, Slate, Fairy Tale Review, Kenyon Review, Iowa Review, Fugue, and elsewhere and have garnered such prizes as the 2020 PNBA Award, 2016 Washington State Book Award, the Autumn House Fiction Prize, the Tim McGinnis Award for Humor, a Grant for Artist Projects from Artist Trust, and the A.B. Guthrie Award for Outstanding Prose. She received her B.A. in English Literature from the University of Washington (2000) and her MFA from the University of Montana (2004). Sharma runs a small press, Scablands Books, and is a contributing editor for Moss. A current employee of Wishing Tree Books in Spokane, Sharma has worked in independent bookstores and public libraries throughout Washington State. She lives with her husband (writer and graphic novelist Simeon Mills) and their two children.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.