Signs of the Imminent Apocalypse

<p><strong>Runner-Up Short Story/Anthology <em>Midwest Book Awards </em>(2025)</strong></p><p><strong>Finalist Traditional Fiction<em> Chicago Writers Association Awards </em>(2025)</strong></p><p><strong>Finalist Short Fiction <em>National Indie Excellence Awards</em> (2025)</strong></p><p><strong>Finalist First Horizon Award <em>Eric Hoffer Awards</em> (2025)</strong></p><p></p><p>Two sisters play an unsettling game; a child witnesses a casually violent neighborhood ritual; an up-and-coming young professional is disturbed by the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings; a woman's ideal life unfolds in the pages of a mail-order catalog. The Midwestern men and women girls and boys who populate <em>Signs of the Imminent Apocalypse and Other Stories</em> are united by a yearning for answers or simply for relief that is often twisted by their baser impulses. With lyricism humor both dark and playful and brutal clarity Heidi Bell approaches reality sideways in her sensational debut collection.</p>