Welcome to Litsy!

Bold and unapologetic, Karen Shepard's Kiss Me Someone is inhabited by women who walk the line between two states: adolescence and adulthood, stability and uncertainty. They navigate the obstacles that come with mixed-race identity and the blending of social classes, and they use their in-between positions to leverage power. Sometimes this manifests as rage and sometimes as compassion--and often as sex--but it almost always comes in the form of self-destructive behavior. Shepard's stories explore what we do to lessen the burden of sadness and isolation; her characters, fiercely true to themselves, are caught between their desire to move beyond that isolation and a fear that it's exactly where they deserve to be.