Kay Summers is a fiction writer captivated by life’s fulcrums—the big moments you see coming and the small ones you only recognize in retrospect. Capturing the dynamism of the pivot, the sharp left turn, the crossing over—it’s a challenge that doesn’t get old.
Kay writes novels and short stories, and she is actively seeking representation.
Read “Pay at the Pump” on The Chamber or Rural Fiction Magazine
Read “12 Items or Less” on The Chamber
Read “Morning Shift in Witness Protection”
on The Raven’s Perch
Read “Cassie” on Wilderness House Literary Review
“Marlene” received an honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest Annual Competition (2022), Literary/mainstream short story
A little background…
I’m a communications professional with years of experience telling the stories of people and organizations in voices other than my own, everything from Shakespearean theatre to climate change. I host an international affairs podcast, Big World. My own writing fulfills my need to tell stories that can matter to people in the way good stories have always mattered to me.
From “Pink Butterflies”
And a lone yellow and black butterfly
Who sits
Kinetic energy at rest
Who is enoughJust as she is
From “A Mother’s Wish”
To complete a thought
To have one thought string from end to end
Beautiful in my mind
Unbroken
Unbothered
Un-hijacked
Undeterred
Brought home to rest
Concluded
Completed
Would be a beautiful relief.
From “Grumpy Women”
I have been reflecting on the power of grumpy women
Grumpy women think
They feel
But you don’t get to know what
They manage
They deal
They deliver
They don’t smile
Much
But when they do
It’s like the clouds parting
And a beautiful sun shining through
Because
They only smile
When they feel like it
And that makes all the difference
From “Less of Me”
Scales
Space
Shadows
Sizes
Smiles
Simple, easy ways to see
whether there is enough less of me
More is bad
More is too much
In every way, in everything else
More is better, it seems
but not in me
The only measure
of true success
since another person saw fit to assess
has been for me to be definably, absolutely, less
Excerpt from Susie Chandler Went Missing:
It’s possible Lisa’s become too judgmental to be useful anymore, but she’s not sure. The young women who come to see her for these meetings have no idea how many reasons people will find to discount them, to dismiss them, to not hire them. They don’t know that they simply can’t afford the tentativeness, the weak handshake, the questioning tone, and the everlasting apologies. The world will be only too happy to write them off; they must learn not to provide the reasons themselves.
Recent recommended reads:
The Sullivanians, by Alexander Stille
Hestia Strikes a Match, by Christine Grillo
A Fever in the Heartland, by Timothy Egan
The Villa, by Rachel Hawkins
All the Sinners Bleed, by SA Cosby
Bright Young Women, by Jessica Knoll
Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
Crown and Sceptre, by Tracy Borman
Stone Blind, by Natalie Haynes
How to Sell a Haunted House, by Grady Hendrix
Booth, by Karen Joy Fowler
North Woods, by Daniel Mason
Up with the Sun, by Thomas Mallon
Prophet Song, Paul Lynch
