All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere

Winner of the Barbara DiBernard Prize in Fiction

Fantastical, sensual, and as beguilingly strange as they are insightful and real, the stories of All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere are centred around intimate familial or romantic relationships. These stories feature protagonists who make awesome discoveries—from the beautiful to the horrible—in seemingly mundane situations. The protagonists in each story come from marginalised communities, which sometimes exacerbates their problems but always allows for unique perspectives and epiphanies.

A violinist nearly hits a bicyclist with her car on her rush to rehearsal, leading to a blissful affair and speculation about the effect of love on her violin playing. The whispering of schoolgirls leads a teacher to consider her own fears and failings. In the title story, the nature of motherhood, fatherhood, and familial pride plays against a backdrop of death and high school theatre.

These are stories of human frailty and newfound strengths, with surprising confrontations. The writing is rich and playful, whether the characters are coy or startlingly direct, creating worlds in which the metaphorical might become literal in the blink of an eye. DeMisty D. Bellinger finds magic in the smallest moments and makes the biggest moments resonate with a quiet intensity.