Sympathy for Wild Girls

A debut collection of surreal, skin-piercing stories about the boundless longing of queer Black women

In Sympathy for Wild Girls, young Black women yearn for intimacy and search for it on turbulent ground. Navigating a subtly warped version of our world, where social mores loom like shadows and bigotry shape-shifts, Demree McGhee's characters track the prints of their desire and pain to the edges of reality, finding refuge in unlikely places. Can they survive the chasms lurking in our common notions of "girlhood"--considering their heightened peril as queer women of color?

A runaway seeks shelter from violence with a pack of wild coyotes. A young woman falls into a hypocritical crew of white Christian YouTube influencers. A mother witnesses her daughter's prophecy about the end of the world come true. A group of shoplifters lose themselves in their quest for cheap lipstick and cheaper fame. Fighting self-loathing and societal abuse, McGhee's characters chase abandon on their own terms--embracing their feral strength and ugliest truths, howling at the moon to be known.