Karen Bender

The Words of Dr. L

& Other Stories

National Book Award finalist Karen E. Bender returns with a short story collection that explores the surreal situation of parents and children separating at different ages through a realistic and speculative lens––from adolescence to empty nest to caring for an aging parent

The Words of Dr. L is National Book Award Finalist’s Karen E. Bender’s third story collection. Bender uses both a realistic and a speculative lens to explore a universal situation—the ways parents and children separate at different times of life. Grounded in both contemporary America and a variety of dystopias, the stories look at adolescence, motherhood, the empty nest, and caring for the aging parent.

From a young woman who wants to learn secret words to prevent a pregnancy, to a mother who discovers an extra child in her home she has forgotten about, to a couple separated from their son in globes orbiting the Earth, the stories honor the emotional force of these situations by grappling with the themes of freedom, self-definition, youth, aging, control, and power. Bender’s work explores the ordinary in the extraordinary, using settings both familiar and speculative to discover new truths in the lifelong connection between parents and their children.