BASS 2026: Calvin Gimpelevich, “High School” from Joyland 2025

At the dawn of the millennium, right before puberty, I moved from San Francisco – a notoriously queer- friendly city – to a quieter, much more conservative, college suburb. At fourteen, I realized my attraction to women and spent the next few years in a haze of rebellion and melodrama. I am not the narrator of “high school,” but her experiences are strongly modeled on mine…. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it as a lesbian in the long run and have settled for life as a man. Calvin Gimpelevich: Contributor Note, Best American Short Stories 2026 This story is hilarious. But it’s a very specific kind of hilarity, one that comes from compassion, from self-recognition, rather than ridicule. It’s the funny of watching a baby take his first shaky steps, knowing it’s the beginning of mastery; the funny of a cat flopping around under the influence of catnip, knowing that’s how we looked last Saturday night after that third round of drinks. It takes a lot of writing work to maintain that kind of…

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