There She Goes

Kathy Anderson writes older women who veer past expectations and keep moving.

Kathy Anderson has a gift for taking ordinary people in everyday moments and revealing a whole world on a page. In her new short story collection, Vamoose, older women take center stage — grieving, fuming, joking, remembering, letting go, and refusing to fade politely into the background.

Stories are also delectably brisk; like potato chips, it’s hard to stop at just one. Kathy wastes no time with setup. Her writing drops readers right into the middle of someone else’s personal drama, then carries us along through intrusive thoughts, bad behavior, submerged feelings, and flashes of bare recognition.

In Vamoose, Kathy’s women have no F’s to give, and everything at stake. They’re unruly, unpredictable, and startlingly familiar. They could be neighbors, coworkers, family members. It’s fun — and a bit unnerving — to get such an intimate peek at these crackling, layered lives that are anything but settled.

Off Script

Vamoose isn’t really a book about aging so much as it is a coming-of-age book for women defying expectations. Kathy’s characters keep growing even after the world has decided who they are supposed to be. That tension gives the book its gusty energy and keeps the curveballs coming.

Stories shine with appetite, humor, and the little joys of life. “It’s something I think people don’t talk about enough when it comes to getting older,” she told us. “The pleasures.” Her characters enjoy fabulous food, travel, friends, and the trappings of city living.

Philly is all over the scenery here, too: rowhomes, cobblestones, landmarks. Much of that local feeling comes from what Kathy has seen and heard from her porch overlooking a busy block in the heart of East Falls. “You can hear everything in a rowhouse: front, back, people walking by on the street,” she said. “You’d be surprised.”

Things Happen

And then there are the situations themselves, which are often delightfully unhinged: A mad housekeeper’s epic feat of resignation. A wife’s blunt rage at her husband’s hospice worker. A stilt-walker’s traffic-stopping swan song on Broad. A sweet nun’s cheerful attempt at murder in broad daylight.

There is plenty of grief in Vamoose, but the book is not bleak. “A stronger theme here I think is love,” Kathy said. “In particular, all the different ways we can express it.” In these stories, love is complicated, reluctant, and inevitable all at once.

Each story opens up a distinct life around a vividly drawn character. Kathy’s perspective as a queer writer is part of what shapes Vamoose, but the book’s emotional range is wider than category. These stories are interested in people first — the lives they build and the roles they dare to resist.

“Maybe you’ll pick up Vamoose because it’s short and snappy, and then come away thinking  ‘Wow, I’ve never met a working-class butch lesbian before,’” she said. “And then the next time you’re walking down the street, you’ll see more of what’s around you.”

The Long Game

Kathy’s stories feel wonderfully lived-in because, well, she lives with them. She follows a character a little farther, sets the work aside, then comes back when the path opens up again. A story can take years – even decades – before it comes into focus.

That long, gradual process helps explain one of the most inspiring things about Kathy’s career: she published her first book at age 60. In a youth-obsessed culture, her path offers something steadier and far more encouraging. “Those years between 20 and 60, I was still a writer,” she said, “Just not in book form.”

Vamoose is Kathy’s third title, a showcase of sly, confident writing with a playful touch of absurdity. Vamoose’s women do not go gently. They keep pushing, often sideways, but gloriously so.

Kathy Anderson gives us an unforgettable book, both local and lasting. If you enjoy fiction with all the feels, Vamoose deserves a spot on your summer reading list. Don’t leave town without it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Vamoose: Stories, by Kathy Anderson (Vine Leaves Press; out June 9, 2026)

Big Things, Little Packages

Summer is the best time for short stories. Days are long, work slows down. Attention spans are cropped like old jeans for a dunk in the Wissahickon. When you need something to do with zero commitment, short stories do the trick.

They travel well. You can read one on a train, over lunch, waiting in line, or whenever you want a distraction with no wifi required and no rabbit holes to disappear down. Better yet, a collection lets you roam. You can jump to the title that grabs you first, then flip back later for the rest.

Where to start? A former librarian, Kathy suggests some of her favorites:

Lucia Berlin — A Manual for Cleaning Women  (2015)
Gritty, funny takes on working life, addiction, and survival. Berlin turns laundromats, halfway houses, kitchens, and cramped apartments into places of real revelation.

Lori Ostlund — Are You Happy? (2025)
Emotional realism with humor still in the mix. Ostlund’s stories follow adults trying to move forward while old wounds keep tugging at them.

Grace Paley —Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974)
Paley is beloved for her voice: funny, intimate, and alive to the messiness of modern life. “Wants,” the opening story here, is a droll portrait of the gap between who we think we are and how we actually live.

Deesha Philyaw — The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (2020)
Tender, funny stories about Black women caught between church rules and private desire. Philyaw writes faith, sex, friendship, and freedom with warmth, wit, and zero varnish.

⭐ Editor’s Picks:

Kathy Anderson — Bull  (2016)
If Vamoose leaves you wanting more, Anderson’s first collection delivers. The title story was a major turning point in her writing life after it was picked up by the prestigious Kenyon Review.

Stephen King — Survivor Type  (1985)
Dark, funny, gruesome, arresting. The author has said it’s his favorite of all the short stories he’s written. Free pdf available online. Cannibalism warning: avoid when eating.

➡️ Keep Reading: The Short Story Project offers free access to a growing international catalog of short fiction in text and audio, with plenty of translated work in the mix. Kathy Anderson is part of that catalog too, and the site also offers a newsletter for readers who want a regular dose of new stories. Shortstoryproject.com

About the Author
Kathy Anderson writes fiction full of wit, warmth, and women who refuse to behave. Her books include Vamoose, The New Town Librarian — a Foreword INDIES and GOLDIE finalist — and Bull and Other Stories, winner of the Autumn House Press Fiction Prize. Her stories have appeared in numerous literary journals and collections. She’s a playwright, as well. She’s also spent more than two decades as a public librarian. She currently lives in East Falls with her wife. More at KathyAndersonWriter.com | @anderson_kathy_writer