forthcoming March 11, 2025 from EastOver Press
The stories in Kim Magowan and Michelle Ross’s collection are sharp-toothed, playful, trippy introspections on the mundane insanity of office-life, the gluey-soup of dating, the casual cruelty of childhood. This collection explores the grimy underbelly of what it means to be human—raw and honest, real and revelatory. Each story is a geode waiting to be cracked open. We couldn’t say it better than the very first story in the collection: ‘Enjoy! It’s a command.’
— Dana Diehl and Melissa Goodrich, authors of The Classroom
Kim Magowan and Michelle Ross have created a smart and hilarious masterpiece of a collection. If you want to laugh out loud, this is the book to read; every sentence is a delight. Two heads are absolutely better than one if those heads are Ross and Magowan’s. Don’t Take This the Wrong Way is insanely good in every possible way.
— Louise Marburg, author of You Have Reached Your Destination
How lucky we are to have this new collection from Kim Magowan and Michelle Ross, two of our best writers of short-form fiction. These stories are resonant and layered, nuanced and generous, each one packing a novel’s worth of insight and wisdom and gifting us with glimpses into the rich interior lives of their characters. Building these stories together, Ross and Magowan have written us a wonder!
— Chrissy Kolaya, author of Charmed Particles
Writing stories has never been an exact science, but what a formula these two authors have used to create this perfect chemistry, an ideal compound synthesized from their individual elements. Magowan and Ross lend their unique voices and perspectives to make Don’t Take This the Wrong Way, an amalgamation of the highest order, a wondrous and tragic and hysterical collection that employs each writer’s vision, resulting in something new, something considerable. Two of today’s best short story writers have collaborated to create one of the story collections of the year.
— Michael Czyzniejewski, author of The Amnesiac in the Maze
Each story in Don’t Take This the Wrong Way strikes like an elegant weapon, quick and sharp enough to take your breath away. The flash stories are masterclasses in the genre, showcasing the authors’ talent for achieving precision without sacrificing complexity, and the longer stories are delightfully inventive. A triumph from beginning to end, these are stories whose impact far exceeds their length.
— Gwen Kirby, author of Shit Cassandra Saw