Friday from the Archives: “Something Coming” by Katey Schultz in NCLR 2020
By Kenly Corya, Senior Editorial Assistant
Now that the 2025 Doris Betts Fiction Prize submission period is open, we look back on the 2019 winning story, “Something Coming.” The 2019 Winner, Katey Schultz, tells the story of Lauren: a gymnast in Appalachia. Lauren has recently begun menstruating, and Schultz’s story traces a girl’s cognitive shift when her naivete is forcibly altered.
The first half of “Something Coming” highlights joys and tensions of childhood amusements as Lauren considers how to impress her classmate and crush, Sid. Lauren determines “If she wanted to get Sid Marshall’s attention before the Town Hall Haunted House that same evening, testing flawlessly on a balance beam would surely be the way to do it.” While Lauren is preoccupied with her crush, she gradually realizes how boys and men perceive her changing body. Lauren recalls a night with her family at Sonic when she heard a man say, “‘Like to bed her. . . . She’s just right with that perky ponytail and tight ass.’” After watching her father, Hiram, beat the man, she has a revelation: “She hadn’t known until then that she had something worth defending to the extent Hiram demonstrated.” As Lauren navigates the new experience of menstruating, Schultz exposes the sexualization of young girls and the menstruating body.
Schultz’s short story features a girl confronted with the realities of living in a culture that both eroticizes and vilifies menstruation. Through Lauren’s narration, Schultz highlights the distorted social standards that equate menstruation to womanhood and perpetuate the objectification of the menstruating body for the male gaze. Although events in the story alter Lauren’s perception of the world, the once self-proclaimed shy girl finds unwavering confidence in herself:
. . . when she got to the place where the street lights stopped and the highway opened into the black night, she knew she was more than strong. She was invincible. Each footfall circled into the next, ears ringing with that familiar chug chug. . . . She was coal, muscle. Power and steel. For the rest of her life she’d be able to run like this, run toward anything she wanted.
With striking language and unforgettable characters, Katey Schult’z story of a girl finding power in herself will stay with readers long after its conclusion.
Interested in reading more? Visit our online store to purchase the back issues in this post or read Schultz’s short story on ProQuest. Learn how to submit your short fiction in the Doris Betts Fiction Prize contest here.
