Waiting for Providence

By Elise Jeanmaire / Elise.Jeanmaire@gmail.com / AWP2023

Genre/Themes: Waiting for Providence is a somewhat speculative literary fiction novel set in present-day Providence. It deals with masculinity, queerness, freedom, and community.

Comps: Imogen Binnie - Nevada, Tom Perrotta - The Leftovers

Summary: NASA’s meteor defense program retired a satellite into an oncoming meteor, sending it toward the earth by mistake. The meteor has a .02% chance of hitting the earth, but it’s enough to ignite debate and uncertainty. Evie is a transgender woman who rides in a queer moped gang called The Greasy Holes. James is a narcissistic, hipster pastor whose church is gaining popularity when people believe the meteor’s trace toward earth is a sign from god. Evie has the freedom James feels tempted by in middle age but can’t achieve because of his affiliation with his church/message and desire for power in the church community. James has the stability and family that Evie yearns for in her middle age. Each has communities with competing morals and thoughts, but Evie and James find a way to put those differences behind them and form an unlikely bond. In the final act, their lives intersect in a way that requires them to use what they’ve learned from each other. When the meteor is scheduled to appear, will it threaten humanity or pass through the night?

Progress/Status: Revising 2nd draft (90k words)

Author Bio: Elise is a queer/trans writer from Providence, Rhode Island. She was a finalist for the Ploughshares Emerging Artist Contest and Queer-Art Mentorship with Torrey Peters (author of “Detransition, Baby”). This past summer, Elise was a fiction contributor at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. An early draft of this novel was awarded a fellowship for the GrubStreet Novel Generator program and a scholarship at Craigardan Writers’ Residency Program.