Not a Chance

Ranging in location from St. Germain and Mexico City to a coldly bucolic New England, these individually wrapped dreams record the struggle of contemporary consciousness for placement and connection. Treat’s narrators--American, female, mostly single--are cultural refugees given to obsession and passionate longing. In the complex title story, a woman attempts to imagine her friend’s love affair, succeeding with such vividness that woman and friend begin to merge. In “Radio Disturbance” a character gradually becomes so attached to her therapist’s voice that she insinuates herself into the woman’s home. These are haunting, intricately textured fictions that will lift you high above familiar ground.

Jessica Treat is the author of A Robber in the House, a collection of short-short stories that Mary Gaitskill called "rigorous and sensual, dream-like and resolutely cerebral...wry magic." Her stories, essays, prose poems, and translations have been widely published in anthologies and literary journals, including Epoch, Quarterly West, Black Warrior Review, American Literary Review, and Ms. Magazine. Treat has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was awarded the Dominion Review Fiction Award. In 2001 she received an Artist Fellowship Award for further work in fiction from the CT Commission on the Arts; she has also received Artist Fellowship Awards from the Fundacion Valparaiso (1998) and Civitella Ranieri (2008). Born in Canada, she grew up in New England and lived for a number of years in Mexico City. Treat is Professor of English at Northwestern Connecticut Community College, where she coordinates the annual Mad River Literary Festival, co-chairs the Cultural Planning Committee, and serves as Faculty Advisor to the Spanish Club. In 2007, she received the Award for Distinguished Service & Educational Excellence Award.