Lungs Full of Noise (Iowa Short Fiction Award)
The 12 stories in Mellas's debut collection, which won the 2013 Iowa Short Fiction Award, employ fantasy to magnifying effect as she explores the ways women and girls view themselves and their shortcomings. Much like Karen Russell or Aimee Bender, Mellas uses bizarre and even grotesque elements to test the mettle of her characters—or to indicate their skewed worldviews. Many resort to extreme tactics to get what they want: figure skaters screw blades directly into their feet and shave their bodies to give themselves an added edge in Mariposa Girls; a woman alleviates empty-nest syndrome by raising caterpillars in The White Wings of Moths; and a menopausal caregiver has an evergreen baby in Beanstalk. In Dye Job, a gaggle of high school girls gorge on fruit to lure prom dates. So Many Wings depicts a divorcée making off with her ex-husband's severed arm from a morgue. Bibi From Jupiter, which centers on a college student who, over the course of two semesters, has more-unusual-than-average roommate issues, is a departure. The other six stories have an impressionistic, abstract bent, lacking coherent narrative backbones; the best of these, Quiet Camp, hyperbolizes the punishments that girls endure for being loquacious. This collection establishes Mellas as a writer of strong, strange, and questioning stories. (Oct.)