I knew I was choosing a story from Deb Olin Unferth, but wasn’t sure which one. There are so many stories to choose from. I could just list Deb Olin Unferth stories for the entirety of this paragraph like a Table of Contents. This is a Personal Anthology, after all, and building an anthology of Unferth stories would be intensely satisfying. But I settled on ‘Draft’ for the sake of playing by the rules. I love tight, single-paragraph stories that are fun to read aloud. I love stories that swell, and build into something tremendous. I love stories that resist order, stories that initiate their own order, stories that build a moat around themselves. I love stories that extend a hand to a friend, stories that run a lap around a swimming pool without slipping, stories that play piano and swing on tire swings. I love stories that look in the mirror without groaning at their bodies and stories that clink together with other stories like champagne flutes and pull their heads back and pour the liquid down in a single, gratifying gulp.

Published in Wait Till You See Me Dance, Graywolf Press 2017. Read the story online here