Elle Nash is one of my favorite contemporary writers reckoning with the untraditional ways we seek out and experience intimacy. Stumbling upon ‘Cat World’ was a revelation for me—not only were Internet lingo and strange subcultures suitable subjects for a short story; publications like Guernica were excited to read them. If you’ve ever engaged with a hyper-specific message board or chatroom (as I did in my day, active in the Nancy Drew PC Game community as well as the American Girl Doll fandom), this will resonate with you. If you need further convincing: much of the story consists of dialogue between users named “ExxonMobil6” and “dErAnGeDkItTy69.”
Published in Guernica, October 2020
A Personal Anthology 