Rebecca Thomas, a 2013 WVU graduate and instructor in the Department of English recently published her short story, “Surviving the Postseason,” in the 16th Edition of Fifth Wednesday Journal.

“Surviving the Postseason” is about a recently widowed woman who tries and fails to fix her air conditioner during a heat wave in Southern California. In the story the woman battles grief, guilt and anger.

The story appears in the same issue of Fifth Wednesday as professor Mark Brazaitis’, “The Hit-’Em-Low-Man.” Brazaitis was Thomas’ thesis advisor and provided a lot of feedback on, “Surviving the Postseason.”

“It’s really wonderful to be in the same issue as him,” Thomas said.

Thomas, who primarily writes fiction, says that a lot of her stories take place in Southern California, where she grew up.

“I think it’s probably impossible to not base stuff off of your own life,” Thomas said. “I’m really interested in some of the tensions that come from the environment of Southern California, specifically Orange County.”

She is currently working on a novel that is based off of the characters from “Surviving the Postseason.” In the story the same character deals with the death of her husband, who had cancer. Thomas says that before he revealed his diagnosis, he revealed that he had had an affair.

“It’s a short story that bloomed into a novel.” Thomas said. “A lot of the novel is just her working through her grief, but then also her anger with the affair as well.”

Her latest publications, “A B.S. in Environmental Science,” and “Spring Training,” are forthcoming in Hunger Mountain and The Massachusetts Review, respectively.

-WVU-

as/07/08/2015

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