Starting BASS 2026: What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Look – I know all about poetry’s reputation for romance, its alluring powers, the sly ways verse woos with line breaks and slant rhymes, but please consider what I know to be true after two years of reading more than 3000 stories: short stories are the most seductive literary form. …. [U]ltimately, it’s the elisions, rooted in the limited page counts, which form one of short fiction’s bedrock emotions: longing. Once the splinter of a story gets under your skin, after only 5000 words or so, you are left with a pang. Even when the story arrives at its seemingly effortless, inevitable conclusion with less, readers can’t help but want more…. Nicole A. Lamy, Foreword I have to admit, I was a little concerned. My first glance was at the back cover copy, which proclaims, “Desire. Longing. Tenderness. Passion. In this year’s volume, love lies at the heart of the stories… “ Three examples follow, two of which involve the romantic kind of love, with one being more about familial love. But it…