Everyday People: The Color of Life—A Short Story Anthology

The mission statement of this anthology composed of works by writers of color is that their stories “speak to experience, loss, fulfillment, and also being at that fork in the road where decisions must be made yet are not always pursued due to moral fortitude.” The collection contains offerings from both established authors like Yiyun Li and Mitchell S. Jackson, and emerging talents such as Dennis Norris II and Brandon Taylor. One of the collection's standouts is Allison Mills’s “If a Bird Can Be a Ghost,” about a young girl who learns more from her grandmother than just her ghost-busting abilities. Though some may wish for some greater variation in form and genre in the stories, this is an excellent sampling of some of the most exciting voices in literature from the past two decades and beyond that will leave readers with plenty of authors to revisit or discover. (Aug.) Correction: this review has been updated to reflect changes the publisher made to the book after the review was published.