C. E. Coughlan

C.E. Coughlan’s work has been pub­lished in Geist, Grain and the anthol­ogy Emerge. The Wigmaker, her col­lec­tion of short sto­ries was pub­lished in 2007 by Smart Cookie Publishing. Her piece, “Once,” was a runner-up in the 1st Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest.

C. E. Coughlan on Geist.com

Dog Show Dancing

The next performer, Coco, a six-year-old Belgian shepherd, stood on his back legs and hopped alongside a woman wearing white go-go boots who jiggled her hips in time to “ymca.” Coco weaved between her legs, rolled across her feet, lay on his back and kicked his legs in the air. The woman’s brow was furrowed and sweat ran down her face. Coco bounded in front of her, then backed through her legs and sneezed twice. The judges looked at each other and one of them wrote something down.

Bindertwine Queen

Jim Slater would be judging the competition for Bindertwine Queen that afternoon and wanted to drive over to the festival in his new tractor and park in front of the crowd, but his wife said that it was the Contestants’ day and not his day, and so he took the Buick and drove around and around until he found a parking spot three streets over.

Wigmaker

Every day she sits down at a table by the window and cuts long pieces of hair and sews them together onto mesh caps and backing strips.

Once

For your mother’s birthday you made brunch: eggs with black beans and salsa and toasted English muffins, and she arrived in a black dress with lace straps. It was eleven o’clock in the morning. She slurred.