Summary

“A Shaker Chair” follows Sylvia, a Black, biracial woman in her forties who works as a clinical psychologist. She has recently taken on a new patient, a 20-year-old woman named Maya, who is of South Asian descent. Sylvia lives and works in Boston. Sylvia is somewhat unnerved by Maya, as Sylvia feels that she might have nascent feelings of attraction towards Maya. Sylvia attempts to deny and dismiss these feelings, in part because she feels uncomfortable with them, and in part because it is unprofessional to have such feelings about a patient. Sylvia internally prides herself on maintaining a sense of clinical emotional detachment from her patients. Sylvia’s mother is a successful poet, and her most prized possession is an antique Shaker chair, which she reserves only for herself and other poets. Sylvia has faced various forms of racial discrimination...