Somewhere a Phone Is Ringing: The Collected Stories of Nancy Bourne


At age 69, Nancy Bourne set herself a goal: to publish at least one story in her lifetime. She was 73 when that first story, "Drawing Lily, " was published. During her last decade-from seventy-three until she died in 2021 at eighty-two-Nancy produced thirty-seven published stories (the last one published posthumously, in 2022), with remarkably varied settings and human predicaments. Examples: A lawyer in a small 1960s southern town pretends his political campaign is not racist ("Massive Resistance"). Touring Iran, an autistic expert on Persian art falls prey to religious police ("Stalking the Sprouted Stag"). In juvie for dealing drugs, a girl sends her friend's brother to the penitentiary and deftly punishes a teacher she distrusts ("American Girl"). A widower's demands that his daughter preserve her chastity contribute to her death, racking him with guilt ("A Case for Wrongful Death").
Her final story, "Somewhere a Phone Is Ringing, " offers a measure of respite from the anguish of impending death.