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Merrill Feitell

Merrill Feitell was born and raised in New York City and completed her MFA at Columbia University. Her first book, Here Beneath Low-Flying Planes, won the 2004 Iowa Short Fiction Award and was published by University of Iowa Press. Her stories have appeared in publications such as Book magazine’s 2003 special issue of “Newcomers’ Fiction,” Glimmer Train, Hampton Shorts, and Best New American Voices 2000. 

Author

It Couldn’t Be More Beautiful

Summer 2004 | Fiction

It is Thanksgiving, the great day of dinner, of Dockers and dress shirts and marshmallow-sweetened squash. This year we are forgoing our standard slow graze on the home front to spend the day with my sister and her boyfriend's family, meeting them for the first time—on this, a National Holiday. The whole situation has got my parents up in arms. My mother likes to do the cooking herself, and my father has been ranting about the traffic the whole way out to Long Island. I know the truth is that my sister is only home from college for the weekend and my parents would rather we have Carly all to ourselves.