The Way We Write Now: Short Stories from the AIDS Crisis

by Sharon Oard Warner (Editor)

The diverse ways AIDS has infused new experiences of love, loss, eroticism, illness, tragedy, and courage into the province of contemporary fiction is powerfully displayed in this collection by a wide range of celebrated and gifted writers.

294 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

Sharon Oard Warner has published a short story collection, Learning to Dance and Other Stories, and two novels, Deep in the Heart and Sophie’s House of Cards. She has also edited an anthology, The Way We Write Now, Short Stories from the AIDS Crisis. Her craft book, Writing the Novella was published on March 1, 2021. Warner is Professor Emerita at the University of New Mexico. She was founding director of the Taos Summer Writers’ Conference (1999-2017).

Reviews

[Bella · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s very interesting to read a collection of stories all from before 1995. The mid-1990s marked a turning point in the treatment of AIDS (thanks to protease inhibitors) but none of the authors in this book knew that when they wrote their stories. In fact, two of the authors in this book didn’t live to see publication.

So this book is a time capsule. That makes it tough to read at points because every story has the same certain ending: the characters will die. Some die in the story, some don’t, but you go into every story knowing the characters will die of AIDS. The different stories show different ways of dealing with the disease, some brutal and some beautiful.

“Imagine a Woman” “BRU-ISER” and “In the Gloaming” fall on the beautiful side. In fact, In The Gloaming may be the most touching short story I’ve ever read.

“The Gift Of Hunger” “These Days” and “The Agent of His Death Is a White Woman” were absolutely brutal. The agent of his death story by Abraham Verghese was particularly intense, but so is everything Verghese ever writes.

The book gets a 4 because most of the stories focused on other people reacting to AIDS, which is interesting, but I think I wanted more gay voices telling gay stories, and while that’s present, it takes a backseat to the stories of caregivers.