All This Want (and I Can't Get None)

Stories

By: T Clark

A piercing short story collection that explores the feverish hunger and dizzying pleasure of girlhood and queer coming-of-age in a small town, from an acclaimed emerging writer

Set mostly in and around a small working class neighborhood, Clark explores the lives of young Black girls, women, and nonbinary characters, slicing through the filmy veil between adolescence and adulthood; between who they’ve been, and who they might become.

D’asia’s friendship with a school security guard is teetering close to inappropriate. Chrissy is looking to play roulette on a trip with her boyfriend but ends up in a hotel room with two strangers. Juju’s mother dresses her up for a meeting with a local music producer. A little sister cringes as a friend tries to hook up with her older brother. A fight breaks out at a party and the video goes viral. A woman can’t stop walking by her ex’s window, hoping to catch a glimpse of all she lost.

With sharp sentences and great affection, Clark excavates the push and pull of desire and power running beneath tender and bare moments.

Critic reviews

“The collection I’ve been praying for. One that keeps it real, lets people be hot, bothered, messy, unrelieved, funny, and profound. In All This Want (and I Can’t Get None), Clark trades in the rose-colored glasses for something more authentic: first rate stories of young men and women coming to epiphanies in their pursuit of a warm body to kiss.”—Sidik Fofana, Stories From the Tenants Downstairs