Kelle Groom is the author of How to Live: A Memoir in Essays (Tupelo Press, 2023), I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl (Simon & Schuster), a Barnes & Noble Discover selection and New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice, and four poetry collections, most recently Five Kingdoms and Spill (Anhinga Press). An NEA Fellow in Prose and Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow in Nonfiction, Groom’s work has previously appeared in AGNI, American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, New England Review, The New Yorker, New York Times, Ploughshares, Poetry, and The Southeast Review as a finalist in the World's Best Short-Short Story Contest. “Bartending School” is from her short-story manuscript-in-progress, The Citronaut. Find out more about Kelle at kellegroom.com.
I worked at the Speedway in Orlando, a race car themed restaurant. Blue Sunoco leaded gasoline pumps on either side of the entrance. A Red Lion Gilmore pump by the restrooms. Motor oil drums transformed into gleaming seats in the cocktail lounge. Sheet metal walls with wavy images of a Bluebird V, a Stanley Steamer. Race car drivers in caps,… Read more →