All the stories in Stevens’ debut collection, In Their Absence, explore different aspects of the idea of what it means to go missing. Many of the stories are very short – just a paragraph or two – but they’re all exquisitely written and full of emotional nuance.
‘Bees’ is full of tension which Stevens skillfully builds, lets you down with a sigh of relief, before ratcheting it up to 11 in the final paragraph. ‘Bees’ describes every harried parent’s ultimate nightmare, but it’s utterly unpredictable and, astonishingly, full of beauty.
Published in In Their Absence, Roman Books, 2020
A Personal Anthology 