Does Worrying About Scales & Hair Right Now Make Me Horrible?

Unless one’s made of stone and iron, having writing a novel (Waisted) based on extreme body-shaming & how the eyes of others scorch women, must change one, yes? Pair that with compiling an anthology titled Women Under Scrutiny, and voila, the perfect storm for facing personal crucibles. Examining ‘knowing one’s character’s crucible**’ is paramount, I … Read more

Slipping. Sliding. All but Vanished.


  by Sahar Abdulaziz I stand, transfixed, staring into the mirror at a face I no longer recognize, at a body that has housed my soul for fifty-plus years, birthed healthy children, sustained me through illness and healed me from falls, and yet, here we are, she and I, practically strangers — adversaries for most … Read more

ECHO (from Women Under Scrutiny)

  by Lauren J. Sharkey It started small—having to catch my breath after going up the stairs, needing to recline my car seat back an inch…going up a size. “You might want to take some weight off,” said my general practitioner during my annual, never once lifting his eyes from the clipboard. I looked down … Read more

CONFESSIONAL: “Will-power is a fable that thin people tell.”

  By Stephanie English I stopped believing in God when I was stick-thin, and have been tempted to reconsider since ballooning to twice my size. The God I hear about has an appetite for vengeance, and it seems He hungered for a chance to punish a skinny woman who loathed fat people by making her … Read more

WAISTED: Why I Wrote This Novel

  I grew up with the idea that the size of my body was the most important thing in the world—and that my body was always too large. When I look back at pictures, I see me at normal, chubby, and large—but at no time did I ever see myself as anything but too big … Read more