‘Gridlock’ has a history—an early draft of the story first appeared back in the early 2000s in the zine Glossolalia. That zine’s creator and publisher, Sarah McCarry, has since gone on to prove herself a publishing virtuoso: the second installment of her All Our Pretty Songs YA trilogy, titled Dirty Wings, came out earlier this year to rave reviews. The ingenious creative nonfiction chapbook series she edits and produces, Guillotine, has brought to light obscure musings from writers ranging from Bojan Louis to Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick to Mimi Thi Nguyen and Golnar Nikpour. And her blog, The Rejectionist, which sprang from her travails as a publishing-industry workhorse, continues to draw a devoted readership.‘Gridlock’ has evolved a bit since it first appeared in Glossolalia—although its core remains: two women stagnate in a parked car at a gas station—either one year in the future or one dimension to the left—and perhaps, more than anything else, it’s an erotic tension that keeps them both there. A later version of the story has since been featured in Metazen, and an even further evolved version appears in The Story of How All Animals Are Equal & Other Tales, which you can pre-order HERE.
Meanwhile, enjoy the following two inescapable songs, which lilt forth from the gas station speakers at polarly inopportune times:
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