Longlisted for the 2010 ReLit Awards

The Only Thing I Have

Rhonda Waterfall has a true genius for narrative; her characters are everyday people who seem to lead everyday lives, but the everyday worlds that they inhabit (so like and unlike our own) are "complexified" by the strange turnings and obscure pitfalls of a unique, unrepeatable and remorseless reality. ―Stephen Osborne, publisher of Geist magazine

Rhonda Waterfall’s collection The Only Thing I Have, assesses the damage our hearts sustain as we find love, keep love or avoid it like the plague. In succinct, Carveresque prose, Waterfall creates remarkable protagonists obsessed with starlet pixies, squash, lost infants, pregnant throats, ghosts in telephone poles and above all the sheer longing requisite in being alive. This book’s a rare find—brilliant, heartfelt stories that are addictive as salty popcorn. —Adam Lewis Schroeder, author of Kingdom of Monkeys

These stories are short, sharp, and fiercely smart. It's impossible not to be affected by the sly strangeness of this excellent debut. —Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean