COMING SOON

Cover art by Megan Merchant.
“I woke to the sound of rain…”

The Grand Scheme of Things, stories


In Bridgeport, a fictional college town in western New York, the residents of The Grand Scheme of Things work against their limitations. Through illness, infidelities, enduring connection, and triumph, these characters and their friends, lovers, and children fight for themselves and each other through tragic, curious, or surreal circumstances.

In “The Wash,” when a woman’s son is drowned by a dog in the Erie Canal, she finds comfort in the most surprising place.

The novella “Cold Storage,” set against the backdrop of campus Vietnam protests in 1971, portrays teenaged June as she leaves St. Barnabas Home for Unwed Mothers and considers returning to college, but arrives home to find her parents divorcing and her mother unrecognizably ill.

In “You Hear Night Sounds,” a college student inherits a pet turkey from his late father—the only one who ever heard his disturbing confession.

Though the village in The Grand Scheme of Things is small, what unravels has universal, historic, and lasting implications. These are stories of protest and growth, of loss and surrender, of acceptance and compromise.

  • "The Grand Scheme of Things, this bold new collection by Sarah Cedeño, exquisitely traces its characters’ profound inhibitions toward their heartbreaking roots. To read these stories is to be gripped by an uncanny sense of recognition. Cedeño is a beautiful writer."

    John McManus, author of Fox Tooth Heart and Bitter Milk

  • "I devoured these brilliant stories, each of which illuminates the glimmering mystery of everyday life. We have all been here - puzzling through loss, navigating love, dancing always, always, against eternity - yet Cedeño's wisdom makes it all new. I read this collection ever more grateful for a true storyteller's insight, generosity, and companionship along this journey of ours; and I highly recommend that you also give yourself that all too rare gift."

    Robin Black, author of If I loved you, I would tell you this

  • “[The Grand Scheme of Things] is a poignant, thought-provoking exploration of life’s complexities, woven with Sarah’s sharp wit and and keen eye for the details that make us human.”

    Small Harbor Publishing

Sarah Cedeño
writer, editor, teacher

Sarah Cedeño’s debut story collection, The Grand Scheme of Things, is forthcoming from Harbor Editions in July of 2025. Her collection of essays, Not Something We Discuss Often, was published by Harbor Editions in November 2022. Her essay "The Visible Woman" was selected by Vivian Gornick as a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2022. Her work has appeared in Brevity, Salamander, The Journal, The Pinch, The Baltimore Review, Hippocampus Magazine, Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. Sarah holds an MFA from Goddard College. She lives in Brockport, NY with her husband, two sons, some old ghosts, and two German shepherds. She teaches writing at her alma mater, SUNY Brockport.