Thanks for This Riot

<p><strong>Winner of the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction</strong><em>Thanks for This Riot</em> explores the limits of kindness the weight of being needed and the fear of being misunderstood. A group counselor is taunted by a truth-divining piano bench a voice actor shouts her abortion at the state capitol a tired caregiver tangles with a pair of stand-up comics a small-town newspaper office shelters an otherworldly tattletale a backwoods acupuncturist leans on her least-exciting offspring a girl in a strapless bra takes a vengeful go-kart ride and a woman gets surgery to lower her expectations (she thinks it went okay). Grouped by types of riot--external riots internal riots and laugh riots--<em>Thanks for This Riot</em> is a poignant and mordantly funny collection with a distinctly feminist viewpoint.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Janelle Bassett</strong>'s writing appears or is forthcoming in the <em>Rumpus</em> <em>Indiana Review</em> <em>Smokelong Quarterly</em> <em>American Literary Review</em> the <em>Offing</em> <em>Washington Square Review</em> <em>Wigleaf</em> and <em>Best Microfiction 2023</em>. She lives in Saint Louis and is a fiction editor at <em>Split Lip Magazine</em>.</p><p> </p><p><br></p>