Don't erase me

Here are voices unlike any you have heard before. Carolyn Ferrell's debut collection of stories features young people, mostly girls, on the verge of being erased from society but determined to endure. They are black or biracial, poor or from broken families, almost-adults navigating a treacherous world. Yet their voices - incandescently street-smart - speak of passion, of connection, of hope wherever they can find it.

Ferrell validates these characters' lives with penetrating sympathy and spirit. Her stories uncover the particular heartache of the young that comes from being different. In "Miracle Answer," the black daughter of a white mother views her double loyalties with both sass and sorrow. "Country of the Spread Out God" sets a tale of unrequited love in the unlikely midst of family court.

The narrator of "Proper Library" - featured in The Best American Short Stories - is a sensitive boy named Lorrie who finds that being gay oddly protects him from the macho culture of high school. In the brilliant title story, a young woman traces backward through her life, revealing the emotional sea change that followed a positive test for HIV.