Overqualified

Joey Comeau’s startling new work of fiction is told through job application cover letters. Looking for work is an exercise in selling yourself. You write cover letter after cover letter, listing the parts of you that you respect the least, listing the selling points that make you valuable in a buyer’s market. You leave out the little details that you tell yourself in the morning to make things okay. You don’t mention the mistakes you’ve made, or the way your feet felt like lead at your aunt’s funeral. You write cover letter after cover letter, listing the same store-bought traits in the same wording, day after day, hoping to find another job. And then maybe one day you just snap a little. You sit down to write a cover letter, and something entirely new comes out.