Corinna Vallianatos’s third book, Origin Stories, is forthcoming (Graywolf, 2025). Her work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2023, McSweeney’s, A Public Space, and elsewhere.
Soon the first cars will arrive for Mass. I can picture them floating down the streets of our city, this suburb of Los Angeles populated by gladsome old people and families with small children and a murky middle swath to which my husband...