Impossibly Small Spaces

by Lisa C. Taylor

A new collection of contemporary short fiction by the author of Growing a New Tail. In this collection, Lisa C. Taylor's varied characters face feelings of inadequacy, grief, loneliness, and love with humor, hope, and intensity. This collection gives voice to people we don't ordinarily notice and situations we may ignore.

"The short story dwells within narrow corridors and, in Impossibly Small Spaces, a collection that seamlessly matches form with content, Lisa C. Taylor gifts the reader with cut-glass explorations of the diminishing spaces and of the freedoms--illusory, fleeting, elusive--so craved by a heartbreakingly real cast of characters. Wonderful." -Alan McMonagle (author of Ithaca)

"Hugely perceptive, sizzling with electric images, this is top-class writing where grace and precision are brought to bear on lives that glow brightly in the reader
s mind long after the last page." -Geraldine Mills (author of Hellkite and Gold)

"The first sentences grab you, the plots take you to unexpected places, and the endings shake you up. What a pleasure to read!" -Ellen Meeropol (author of Kinship of Clover and On Hurricane Island)

146 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2018

About the author

Lisa C. Taylor is the author of a novel, The Shape of What Remains, was released on February 18, 2025. This novel tackles one woman's journey back to life after the unexpected death of her child. The novel is listed on Kindle for $0.99 and available now. She is also the author of a collection of poetry, Interrogation of Morning (2022), two short story collections, Impossibly Small Spaces (2018) and Growing a New Tail (2015) and two other collections of poetry, including Necessary Silence (2013, Arlen House/Syracuse University Press). Both her poetry and fiction have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She's been a finalist in many contests and recently won the Hugo House New Works Award for short fiction. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals and anthologies including Tahoma Literary Review, Lily Poetry Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, Naugatuck River Review, MER VOX, Live Encounters, Hawai'i Pacific Review, Women's Art Quarterly Journal, Crack the Spine Anthology, Worcester Review, Crannog, and Sky Island Journal. She was a January 2015 spotlight feature for the Associated Writing Programs (AWP) and was a mentor in their writer-to-writer program. Lisa holds an MFA in Creative Writing as well as an MA. She teaches creative writing online and offers private workshops and mentoring. She is the co-director of the Mesa Verde Writers Conference and Literary Festival.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

“...it isn’t fair that one species can exploit another and that sometimes even when I want to, I can’t protect those who need it most”.

A universal sentiment to be sure, but the angle Lisa C. Taylor takes in this collection of short stories is defining who most needs that protection. Stepping back from a more traditional world view, Taylor demonstrates in Impossibly Small Spaces that it is a tiny corner of our most private self that is most at risk. How that secret self gets protected, and what defines safety, is the core of the stories that take a fresh perspective on what we do when the unpredictable occurs.

I had read her previous book, Growing a New Tail, a few years ago. I was knocked out by how she painted characters in absolutely ordinary situations who dealt with both the mundane and the ugly in their own unique way. The flip side to this new collection is that it is the situations that are nothing ordinary, and the character reactions are complicated. Self-preservation by denial and running from grief is a tactic these characters find necessary. They aren’t making grand gestures of expansive good works to society. Rather, they are in survival mode, which can take many forms, some of which are no good at all.

In one story, two strangers awaiting a plane arrival briefly acknowledge each other before the worst news crashes in on them. They don’t react as if in a Hallmark happy-ending movie plot. Their next actions are spontaneous, slightly insane, poorly thought out, and terribly real. It’s that kick of the reality of what they do that drives many of the stories: no one prepares us for crisis, so no one can say we are doing it wrong.

Many of the stories have the basis of strangers in pairs trying to navigate a crisis. One woman needs a date for a wedding, but finds that getting one means revealing her most fragile secret. Another character creates secrets to hide his own reality, but loses himself so deeply in falsehoods that nothing is real for him anymore.

In a moment of self-reflection, he considers a fish tank: “Did [the fish] have the consciousness to know he was in a prison or did every body of water feel the same?” The reader senses that the alternate reality he’s created is probably more prison than safety, even though he has no intention of escape.

Throughout the stories, which stand alone and are not linked, Taylor’s insightful character studies mean they are not easily forgotten. Weeks after I first read it, I remembered certain characters with a sort of wistful, “what if” thought as to their survival skill. It was as if I’d read a newspaper article about real people.

“A life with this much colour requires a mute button.” That mute button is the key to finding the impossibly small spaces that let us survive whatever happens. Taylor’s stories are rich and complex, and entirely unforgettable.

[TJ Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed these short stories. The characters really came to life for me!