Subcortical

The off-balance and lively characters in Subcortical use braininess and grit in their attempts to navigate beyond the borders of their homes and histories.

Winner of the Story Prize Spotlight Award of The Story PrizeWinner of the Short Fiction Award of the American Book FestBronze Book Award Short Story Fiction of the Independent Publisher

Recipient of the 2018 Story Prize Spotlight Award

Lee Conell's linguistically deft stories examine the permeability between the real and the imagined, the stories buried beneath the surface and the stories by which we live our lives.

In the title story of this collection, a young woman who wants to become a doctor is manipulated by an older man into playing a role in one of his medical studies. In "The Lock Factory," winner of the Chicago Tribune's 2016 Nelson Algren Literary Award, three women who assemble school combination locks are trapped inside an escalating generational conflict of...