Erase and Rewind

An assault survivor realizes she can rewind time and relives the experience in order to erase it. A teen athlete wonders why she isn’t more afraid of death when the plane carrying her team catches fire. The daughter of a superhero ruminates on how her father neglected his children to pursue his heroics. Two shut-in depressives form a bond on Twitter while a deadly virus wipes out most of the population of North America.

Meghan Bell’s debut collection of short stories is a highwire balance of levity and gravity, finding the surreal in everyday life. Told from the perspective of female protagonists—from early teens to early thirties—Erase and Rewind probes the complexities of living as a woman in a skewed society. Quirky, intelligent and darkly comic, Bell’s work picks at rape culture, sexism in the workplace, uneven romantic and platonic relationships, and the impact of trauma under late-stage capitalism.

This collection of contemporary feminist work can be devoured in a single sitting. It both scours and heals the pain of modern existence.

Praise for Erase and Rewind:

“A tough compelling new voice that tells us what it’s like to be young nowadays. Meghan Bell is a writer to watch.”
—Susan Swan, author of The Dead Celebrities Club