The Calamity of Desire and Other Stories

The seven stories and novella that comprise The Calamity of Desire, Judith Dancoff’s debut collection of short fiction, each focus on a famous painter or well-known work of art. Inspired by the art of Gustav Klimt, John Singer Sargent, Auguste Renoir, Diego Velásquez, Johannes Vermeer, Paul Gauguin, and Roman glass found around the world, these stories explore the imagined desires and dreams of both famous artists and the models they used to express their art. Each story is a gem, but you’ll never forget Dancoff’s tale about Gustav Klimt’s well-known, posthumous portraits of Ria Munk, a young Jewish woman who killed herself over a broken heart. Or the struggling young painter in Paris who poses for Renoir and gets involved in the Dreyfus Affair. As soon as you finish the book, you’ll want to study the paintings again, with new insight.

From a very young age, Judith Dancoff's first love was painting, before she went to UCLA and was kidnapped by filmmaking and ultimately writing. She holds two MFAs--one from the UCLA Film School and one from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. When she is not working on new writing projects or wandering museums, she takes community art classes and dreams of becoming an artist. She teaches writing and literature at Los Angeles City College. Recently, a part of her dream came true when her video and several small pieces were included in the art exhibit "Atomic Dragons" at Pitzer College in March-April 2026.

A Pushcart Prize Nominee, Dancoff's writing has appeared in The Georgia Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Southern Humanities Review and elsewhere. Her awards include Best Short Story Collection of 2025 from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and fellowships at Hedgebrook, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Djerassi, where she was the McElwee Family Fellow. Her film "Judy Chicago & the California Girls" has screened at and is owned by the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.