Navigating constantly changing social and familial relationships, the women in M. Jay Smith’s stories strive to hold everything together and stay true to their convictions in the process.

Cantaloupe! brings us nine juicy stories about trying (and failing) to do the right thing – about yearning to stay true to yourself, in a culture that demands compromising even the most deeply held convictions. With razor-sharp prose, M. Jay Smith contemplates how identities smudge into each other, how they shout and push and wither and explode under pressure. How complicated is Indigeneity and gender and class. How jagged and haunting childhood experiences can be on motherhood. How, no matter what, one’s best intentions go a little bit awry.