“It’s Just Whatever,” the title of the opening story of Coolest American Stories 2025, could in some contexts sound like a healthy release valve for over-complicating thoughts or situations. Unfortunately, in the case of Robbie, a mid-twenties small-time drug dealer living in his childhood bedroom, the phrase seems to function as a rejection of life per se beyond his insulated world of drugs and video games.”

— North American Review

“Timothy Laurence Marsh's coastal Southern California home town set the stage for his entering college on a tennis scholarship, where he began pursuing a career in law enforcement. But an elective course in creative writing put him on a very different path.”

— Jon DiSavino, Short Story Today