The Old Turtle Climb

Just as a bumblebee seems to defy the laws of physics every time it takes flight, so too does Julia Cottrelle’s quietly devastating story “The Old Turtle Climb” carry such emotional and thematic weight as to risk failure, which is the mark of true artistry. Through assured and coolly intelligent prose, Cottrelle explores a mother’s raw grief at the loss of stillborn baby, intertwined with images of animal birth and death that are at turns clinical, heartbreaking, and bleakly funny — and often all at once. This is a haunting and authentic depiction of a wounded soul attempting to live through a deep hurt.