Anthologies & Short Stories

Book SynopsisThese prizewinning stories champion the everyday person who tries to do his or her best in demanding and even demeaning situations.The stories in A Common Person and Other Stories, R. M. Kinder's third short-story collection and the winner of the Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction, expose the disruption in our modern life and the ever-present threat of violence, and, most importantly, they capture the real heroism of everyday people. The characters in these stories, most set deep in the middle of America, seem to invite trouble through their concern for others: a neighbor's mistreated dog, a boy standing up to a bully, a woman who faces cancer and the loss of love. Kinder's characters struggle with conflicts common to us allto treat humans and animals with compassion, to open minds and hearts to diversity, all while balancing the welfare of the individual and the larger community. The characters aren't always loveable, but they have their moments of gracethTrade Review"R. M. Kinder may be a modern-day Katherine Anne Porter with a vein of Flannery O’Connor darkness squiggling throughout, but she puts me most in mind of Lucia Berlin in sensibility and droll intelligence. Kinder manages to bolster our hope for humanity, even as she doesn’t flinch from the hard face of twenty-first-century reality. A Common Person and Other Stories is full of heart, generosity, and absolutely stunning writing." —Karen Brennan, author of Monsters"Reading an R. M. Kinder story is like plunging your face into a clear, cold, spring-fed stream. Everything is changed, refreshed, and revelatory. Her beautiful new collection, A Common Person and Other Stories, is a constant, thrilling reminder of the magic and power that resides in the people—and the animals—that surround us every day." —Whitney Terrell, author of The Good Lieutenant“Known as a regionalist, a rural writer, and a realist . . . most of [Kinder’s] stories are about the struggles of ordinary people. . . . Some of [the stories] are light, all of them have a serious thread, and every one of them is about working-class, brave people making their life with honor and nobility.” —Sedalia Democrat"Kinder from everyday life forges sincere, powerful revelations about what goes into being human, sometimes in glory and sometimes in shame, and told always with a genius for emotional honesty that eschews the maudlin in favor of the real." —Richmond News"The third illuminating collection of short fiction from R.M. Kinder thoughtfully explores how people are shaped by simple heroism and fateful encounters." —Shelf Awareness“A Common Person is a skillfully touching collection of stories by Missouri writer R. M. Kinder.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch"An inherently absorbing, impressively original, and memorably written compendium of short stories by an exceptionally talented author." —Midwest Book Review"The collection brings out the triumph, violence, and profound ambiguity lurking beneath the surface of everyday life. It is more than worthy of its acclaim and ought to garner scores of readers who may find themselves face to face with their own reflections in its pages." —Missouri Life"R. M. Kinder’s gift for creating meaningful characters is marked by her awareness of complexities continually at work in every person and by the mysterious alchemies of need, will, and fortune that shape our relationships, including those we share with animals." —Southern Literary Review"Kinder's range is impressive. The breadth of setting, tonality, and character varies greatly from one story to the next, yet there is a deliberate flatness and matter of fact veneer to these stories that reflect, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it, 'one long effort to escape from the commonplace of existence.'" —OzarksWatch MagazineTable of Contents1. A Common Person 2. Everyday Sky 3. Tradition 4. Little Garden 5. Signs 6. Alvie and the Rapist 7. Brute 8. A Fragile Life 9. The Bully’s Snake 10. The Dancer’s Son 11. Dating in America 12. Small Courtesies 13. Recovering Integrity 14. A Rising Silence 15. Mother Post 16. Bay at the Moon 17. The Stuff of Ballads

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Book SynopsisIn these dense and startling stories, Maya Sonenberg telescopes seasons, decades, and generations in candid depictions of women's family lives.What happens when the urge to ditch your family outpaces the desire to love them? The stories in Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters, winner of the Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction, attempt to answer this question, heading straight for the messiness of domestic relationships and the constraints society places on women as they navigate their obligations. Daughters desert their rheumy-eyed elders in dusty museums, steal a mother's favorite teacup, or consider throwing their dead parents' nostalgia-riddled belongings out the window. Mothers conclude that they love one child more than their others. Fathers puzzle over a wife's inability to balance family and career or accuse a partner of blaming their child for her own misdeeds. Women mourn the children they decided not to have and fret over the legacy they'll leave the childreTrade Review“The luminous sentences that comprise Maya Sonenberg’s Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters house one surprise after another, never landing where the reader expects linguistically, narratologically, or existentially. They delineate quietly broken lives and unhurried regret in fictions that exist within beautiful clouds of ontological static.” —Lance Olsen, author of Skin Elegies“Written with humor and spirit, this lively assembly of protean fictions takes us from castle to carwash via an anxious activist, a frazzled painter, a pickle maker, an exemplary whale, and the always illuminating chimpanzee.” —Rikki Ducornet, author of Trafik“Maya Sonenberg’s witchy and yet touchingly vulnerable characters bring to mind the ‘bad’ mothers and daughters of Lispector, tinted with shades of the Brothers Grimm.“ —Barbara Browning, author of The Gift"Maya Sonenberg’s contemporary tales are alive with the pulse of the mythic, and her fairy stories brim with all the light and longing of the everyday. These visions of mothers and daughters—broken, breaking, seeking, striving—stick in the mind even as they open the heart. What a powerful, gorgeous collection." —Jedediah Berry, author of The Manual of Detection"I loved the stories in Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters with my whole heart, thrilled by their intuitive leaps of imaginative logic, their celebrations of wonder and surprise, and their centering of the unbridled wildness of the mind. Maya Sonenberg has given me exactly the kind of gift I want from a collection of stories: precisely made, gorgeously rendered worlds, each so inventive that it suggests there's always even more magic waiting beyond its margins. I know I will visit these stories again, and that next time they will transport me even further into wonder." —Matt Bell, author of Appleseed"Maya Sonenberg's Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters is a revelation of fairy tale and form. In gorgeous, clear prose, evoking a playful range of settings—seascape to castle to hospital room to Seattle landmark—Sonenberg irreverently questions the loaded roles of child and parent, of princess and witch, of caretaker and abandoner, all the while piercing the wonders of both our natural world and our labyrinthe hearts." —Sharma Shields, author of The Cassandra and The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac"Sonenberg subverts the expected rhythm of short stories. Instead of focusing on plot, she focuses on meaning, with infallibly chosen details that reach past the brain and into the soul. . . . The short stories of Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters are written with such beauty and empathy that each conjures a heartfelt sigh." —Foreword Reviews (Starred Review)“Maya Sonenberg’s stories are nimble, witty, and unafraid of delving into the domestic grotesque via the sticky tendrils of the fairy tale. Whale skeletons and scorpions intermingle with gluten-free cake and boom boxes, as she miraculously transforms, again and again, drudgery and heartbreak into something expansive, something exuberant, something that cracks open the mundane to reveal the magic of bloody shoes, lost sisters, the game of solitaire that remakes the world into something so bright you can’t turn away from it, no matter how much it might burn.” —Tina May Hall, author of The Physics of Everyday Objects and winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize"Sonenberg’s Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters slashes through the thickets of form and convention with its feral and graceful stories, its resonant and wise voice, and its candid portrayal of women who resist the strictures of family, obligation, and duty." —Chicago Review of Books"While Maya Sonenberg’s new short story collection, Bad Mothers Bad Daughters, contains many fairy tale elements such as evil queens, poisoned fruits, and the hero’s quest to portray the complicated and even Grimm (sorry) or painful relationships between mothers and daughters, the writer keeps it real by mixing in modern day themes like sexism while casting bits of absurdist humor over the pages to keep her readers enchanted." —Tupelo Quarterly"The economy and focus of Sonenberg’s prose allow the stories to punch above their weight in this slim volume. Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters is a beautiful collection of complex pieces which deserves and rewards prolonged consideration." —Heavy Feather ReviewTable of Contents1. Childhood 2. Pink Seascape 3. Dark Season 4. Four Phoebes 5. Moon Child 6. Seventh 7. The Cathedral is a Mouth 8. Return of the Media Five 9. The Other Road 10. Painting Time 11. Hunters and Gatherers 12. The Arches, Our Home 13. Six Views of Seattle 14. Annunciation 15. Disintegration 16. Visitation 17. On Seeing the Skeleton of a Whale…. 18. Princess of Desire 19. Bad Mother: A Story in Five Paragraphs 20. Seven Little Stories about 1977 21. Last Week, New Year 22. Inebriate of Air 23. Forest Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisIn these dense and startling stories, Maya Sonenberg telescopes seasons, decades, and generations in candid depictions of women's family lives.What happens when the urge to ditch your family outpaces the desire to love them? The stories in Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters, winner of the Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction, attempt to answer this question, heading straight for the messiness of domestic relationships and the constraints society places on women as they navigate their obligations. Daughters desert their rheumy-eyed elders in dusty museums, steal a mother's favorite teacup, or consider throwing their dead parents' nostalgia-riddled belongings out the window. Mothers conclude that they love one child more than their others. Fathers puzzle over a wife's inability to balance family and career or accuse a partner of blaming their child for her own misdeeds. Women mourn the children they decided not to have and fret over the legacy they'll leave the childreTrade Review“The luminous sentences that comprise Maya Sonenberg’s Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters house one surprise after another, never landing where the reader expects linguistically, narratologically, or existentially. They delineate quietly broken lives and unhurried regret in fictions that exist within beautiful clouds of ontological static.” —Lance Olsen, author of Skin Elegies“Written with humor and spirit, this lively assembly of protean fictions takes us from castle to carwash via an anxious activist, a frazzled painter, a pickle maker, an exemplary whale, and the always illuminating chimpanzee.” —Rikki Ducornet, author of Trafik“Maya Sonenberg’s witchy and yet touchingly vulnerable characters bring to mind the ‘bad’ mothers and daughters of Lispector, tinted with shades of the Brothers Grimm.“ —Barbara Browning, author of The Gift"Maya Sonenberg’s contemporary tales are alive with the pulse of the mythic, and her fairy stories brim with all the light and longing of the everyday. These visions of mothers and daughters—broken, breaking, seeking, striving—stick in the mind even as they open the heart. What a powerful, gorgeous collection." —Jedediah Berry, author of The Manual of Detection"I loved the stories in Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters with my whole heart, thrilled by their intuitive leaps of imaginative logic, their celebrations of wonder and surprise, and their centering of the unbridled wildness of the mind. Maya Sonenberg has given me exactly the kind of gift I want from a collection of stories: precisely made, gorgeously rendered worlds, each so inventive that it suggests there's always even more magic waiting beyond its margins. I know I will visit these stories again, and that next time they will transport me even further into wonder." —Matt Bell, author of Appleseed"Maya Sonenberg's Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters is a revelation of fairy tale and form. In gorgeous, clear prose, evoking a playful range of settings—seascape to castle to hospital room to Seattle landmark—Sonenberg irreverently questions the loaded roles of child and parent, of princess and witch, of caretaker and abandoner, all the while piercing the wonders of both our natural world and our labyrinthe hearts." —Sharma Shields, author of The Cassandra and The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac"Sonenberg subverts the expected rhythm of short stories. Instead of focusing on plot, she focuses on meaning, with infallibly chosen details that reach past the brain and into the soul. . . . The short stories of Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters are written with such beauty and empathy that each conjures a heartfelt sigh." —Foreword Reviews (Starred Review)“Maya Sonenberg’s stories are nimble, witty, and unafraid of delving into the domestic grotesque via the sticky tendrils of the fairy tale. Whale skeletons and scorpions intermingle with gluten-free cake and boom boxes, as she miraculously transforms, again and again, drudgery and heartbreak into something expansive, something exuberant, something that cracks open the mundane to reveal the magic of bloody shoes, lost sisters, the game of solitaire that remakes the world into something so bright you can’t turn away from it, no matter how much it might burn.” —Tina May Hall, author of The Physics of Everyday Objects and winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize"Sonenberg’s Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters slashes through the thickets of form and convention with its feral and graceful stories, its resonant and wise voice, and its candid portrayal of women who resist the strictures of family, obligation, and duty." —Chicago Review of Books"While Maya Sonenberg’s new short story collection, Bad Mothers Bad Daughters, contains many fairy tale elements such as evil queens, poisoned fruits, and the hero’s quest to portray the complicated and even Grimm (sorry) or painful relationships between mothers and daughters, the writer keeps it real by mixing in modern day themes like sexism while casting bits of absurdist humor over the pages to keep her readers enchanted." —Tupelo Quarterly"The economy and focus of Sonenberg’s prose allow the stories to punch above their weight in this slim volume. Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters is a beautiful collection of complex pieces which deserves and rewards prolonged consideration." —Heavy Feather ReviewTable of Contents1. Childhood 2. Pink Seascape 3. Dark Season 4. Four Phoebes 5. Moon Child 6. Seventh 7. The Cathedral is a Mouth 8. Return of the Media Five 9. The Other Road 10. Painting Time 11. Hunters and Gatherers 12. The Arches, Our Home 13. Six Views of Seattle 14. Annunciation 15. Disintegration 16. Visitation 17. On Seeing the Skeleton of a Whale…. 18. Princess of Desire 19. Bad Mother: A Story in Five Paragraphs 20. Seven Little Stories about 1977 21. Last Week, New Year 22. Inebriate of Air 23. Forest Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisIn this short story collection, Marilyn Krysl gets us to empathize with characters who are simply too unhappy or idealistic to be much fun.Trade Review"Many of the characters in these eight short fictions from Krysl maintain an awkward, ironic limbo between the desire for political correctness and stultifying class entitlements. . . . Krysl's fiction resists the usual trajectories of plot, concentrating instead on a relentless, sometimes entertaining and illuminating investigation of personal responsibility." —Publishers Weekly“A strong story collection . . . showcasing a feminist, leftist, postmodernist, funny voice. . . Krysl has a thing for Boulder; even more so, a thing for women's lives portrayed with wry or tender originality. 'Heraclitus, Help Me,' for example, illustrates the changes in a daughter's life with allusions to the paintings of Mary Cassatt, and 'Cherry Garcia, Pistachio Cream' is a beauteously real portrayal of mother/daughter bonding. The more political Krysl gets, the bleaker the results—think William Burroughs without the misogyny. Her piece 'Welcome to the Torture Center, Love,' concerning a night journey through the inferno that is war-torn Sudan, is a dazzler.” —Kirkus Reviews“Krysl pulls off the seemingly impossible, getting us to empathize with characters who are simply too unhappy or idealistic to be much fun . . . The two novellas that come at the end of the collection, “Mitosis” and “Welcome to the Torture Center, Love” both set in the Sudan, are stunners. . . . Africa seems to have elicited from Krysl a language that is as stark and elemental as the landscape itself. The novellas are beautiful evocations of the Sudanese tragedy, from many sides: the suffering Africans themselves, the aid workers whose efforts are rendered irrelevant by the sheer size of the catastrophe.” —Women’s Review of Books“She weaves other cultures and issues into her stories, making them relevant to the problems of today. In this collection of short stories, Krysl builds up an event or dramatic moment, then suddenly begins a conversation with the reader. We are taunted to see how the situation resolves itself. Her stories are interesting, bold, and creative.” —Multicultural Review“If there's a common theme or motif to the stories, it's that the world is a dangerous place, filled with suffering and pointless deaths. However, the world is also full of decent people who still believe in love and try to be of use. Krysl manages to combine a powerful social conscience with a good-hearted faith in people. The stories are highly original and, for the most part, compelling.” —Rocky Mountain News“Dinner with Osama is a book of tragicomic stories, meditations, and a novella, written in a style that's fast, snarky, parodic, anguished, passionately engaged politically, screamingly funny, seriously erotic, vastly maternal. An equal opportunity satirist happy to skewer the bleeding heart lefty she herself is, [Krysl's] finger is on the pulse of political correctness along with political infamy.” —Alicia Ostriker, American Book Review“We may have to invent a new term––’the political lyric,’ perhaps––to describe the ‘airy speech and inspired story’ in Marilyn Krysl’s brilliant new collection of short fiction, Dinner with Osama. Here are stories that range from the whimsical ‘Air, A Romance,’ in which Krysl uses white space and typographical layout in a manner more typical of poetry than fiction, to the disturbing novella ‘Welcome to the Torture Center, Love,’ where the horrors of the Sudan are the heart of a love story. What holds all the fiction together, as much as the impassioned political and cultural concerns that inform them, is the writing, which is lyrical in the best sense, lyrical as in musical, expressive, and vivid.” —Ed Falco, author of Sabbath Night in the Church of the Piranha: New and Selected Stories“Marilyn Krysl is one of our most gifted, quirky, and delightful storytellers—unpredictable, funny, and wildly inventive in wondrous ways. Her new collection shows her at the top of her form as she details the ordinary, the absurd, and the apocalyptic in outrageous and deeply affecting ways.” —Jay Neugeboren, author of 1940, Imagining Robert, and News from the New American Diaspora“Marilyn Krysl's astonishing Dinner with Osama somehow finds the intersection between deep anguish at the state of the world and brilliant, caustic, and hilarious sociopolitical satire of America post-9/11. Its effrontery is peculiarly female, its fierce intelligence that of a mother—or even (‘Are We Dwelling Deep Yet?’) a Great Mother—who needs to save and feed the world however she can. Its north and south must be ‘Mitosis,’ Krysl's heartbreaking life history of a young Dinka woman whose way of life, and source of food, have been destroyed by civil war in Sudan; its east and west is surely the title story, in the voice of a politically irreproachable matriarch of Boulder, Colorado, who does her part by extending a dinner invitation to Osama—yes, that Osama—through her ‘pal’ Abdullah at the local gyros stand; and Osama not only receives it, he accepts. Israelis and Palestinians, ‘conflict’-addicted cliché-mongers of the creative writing workshop, violent extremists of every stripe, and above all the wealthy consumerist left are all skewered in this miraculous collection. I'll wager that even you, gentile reader, will find your face (and your bad conscience) somewhere in its fractured, pitiless mirror.” —Jaimy Gordon, author of Bogeywoman and She Drove Without Stopping

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Book SynopsisLove beneath the Napalm is James D. Redwood's collection of deeply affecting stories about the enduring effects of colonialism and the Vietnamese War over the course of a century on the Vietnamese and the American and French foreigners who became inextricably connected with their fate. These finely etched, powerful tales span a wide array of settings, from the former imperial capital of Hue at the end of the Nguyen Dynasty, to Hanoi after the American pullout from Vietnam, the Chinese invasion of Vietnam in 1979, contemporary San Francisco, and Schenectady, New York.Redwood reveals the inner lives of the Vietnamese characters and also shows how others appear through their eyes. Some of the images and characters in Love beneath the Napalmthe look that Mr. Tu''s burned and scarred face always inflicts on strangers in the title story; attorney and American Vietnam Warveteran Carlton Griswold''s complicated relationship with Mary Thuy in The Summer Associate; Phan VTrade Review"In his collection Love beneath the Napalm, James Redwood chronicles the choices made by those who survived the Vietnam War and their ensuing consequences. These stories, unusual and unexpected, recount how characters shape and construct their intimate and social landscapes in the wake of conflict. These are important stories that explore a time that is receding into historical memory. Redwood is an astute writer, and these stories are an impressive debut." —Sharon Dilworth, author of Year of the Ginkgo“James D. Redwood’s Love beneath the Napalm is a beautifully written and very human testament to a people who suffered untold horrors during the Vietnam War. A haunting and very powerful collection of stories.” —James Carl Nelson, author of The Remains of Company D: A Story of the Great War and Five Lieutenants"As the escalation of the Vietnam conflict nears its golden anniversary, James Redwood celebrates in quiet sepia, reflecting all the complexities of the war in this shoebox full of grainy and glowing human portraits." —Robert Anderson, author of Ice Age"Love beneath the Napalm recasts the fullness of Vietnam's suffocating and cruel trouble. The stench of the war's horror is given a freshly enraptured perspective that never wanders far from the witches' breath of the violence and lies still calling to sorrows no matter how dispersed. The only witnesses who are 'truly free,' as the author states in these quietly alarming and necessary stories that really do take hold, are wind and water." —David Matlin, author of A HalfMan Dreaming and Up Fish Creek Road and Other Stories“Serious and downbeat. . . a Vietnam War story collection unlike all others.” —The VVA Veteran“This year is the 50th anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which became the Johnson administration’s justification for increased military action against North Vietnam. Next year is the 50th anniversary of the introduction of ground troops. Even as those reassessments start, Redwood’s book will ask readers to look at how the years of conflict with the Chinese, French and Americans affected the people of Vietnam.” —South Bend Tribune“A subtle exploration of the enduring effects of war and colonialism.” —Times Union“According to O’Rourke [editor of the Notre Dame Review], what makes these stories about Vietnam stand out are the different points of view. . . . ‘The war ended almost forty years ago, and this collection is important because it takes a fresh look at the Vietnamese experience.’” —Sunday Gazette"The Vietnam War has a special place in the country's imagination. It was the first we lost and it was massively unpopular. Love beneath the Napalm, James D. Redwood's debut collection, explores the human side of the conflict, but from the perspective mostly of the Vietnamese. . . . Redwood taught English in Vietnam and all but two of his protagonists are Vietnamese. . . . Redwood has made a solid beginning." —American Book Review

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Book SynopsisWhat I Found Out About Her: Stories of Dreaming American, winner of the 2014 Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction, reaffirms Peter LaSalle''s reputation as one of the most startlingly original writers working in the short fiction genre today.In this collection of eleven stories, LaSalle explores how everyday life for manyan FBI agent, a study-abroad student, a drug dealer''s chic girlfriend, a trio of Broadway playwrights, among otherscan often take on something much larger than that, almost the texture of a haunting dream. Marked by stylistic daring and a rare lyricism in language, this is intense, thoroughly moving fiction that probes the contemporary American psyche, portraying it in all its frequently painful sadness and also its brave and unflagging hope.Trade Review"I've always believed that as a short story writer Peter LaSalle has been in the same class as Donald Barthelme and Joyce Carol Oates in the avant-garde of American fiction writers, and now, reading his new collection, What I Found Out About Her, I am more than confirmed in that belief: indeed, his sophisticated and highly controlled formal experimentation, which is the sparkling core of his style, now flows with such masterly ease that he can be said to be in a class of his own, at the forefront of American creators of original prose." —Zulfikar Ghose, author of The Triple Mirror of the Self”Peter LaSalle’s stories, set in wonderfully various settings—Buenos Aires, New York, Paris, Chicago—are rich in their delineation of our private lives and loves, and in those moments in which, by ourselves or with others, we live most deeply. These haunting tales are shrewdly original, disarmingly complex, and—always, always, since LaSalle is one of our finest storytellers—as beautifully crafted as they are memorable.” —Jay Neugeboren, author of You Are My Heart and Other Stories"A beautiful collection of eleven stories focusing on love, loss and—as the subtitle suggests—dreams. LaSalle tends to focus on small events that paradoxically give life meaning—or at least cause his characters to question life's meaning. . . . LaSalle's stories are subtle, evocative, haunting—and brilliantly written." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"[T]his book . . . adds to Peter LaSalle’s merited reputation as a writer of powerful and innovative short fiction. LaSalle is a master—his writing is so intelligent and thoughtful, so smooth and fluent, its current so strong, and his characters so easy to care about, even to love, that one forgets to look for the stylistic sleights of hand so admired by academics and instead gets caught up in the lives of people who could easily be one’s best friend, lover, aunt—or oneself." —Foreword Reviews“Each story is told with clear, conscious prose. The sentences are strong, the words are all in the right order, and the details are clever. . . It becomes clear that Peter LaSalle might just be a master technician of story craft.” —American Book Review

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Book SynopsisShort stories from a Syrian writer.Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part One A Walnut Tree for This Time The Antreek My Aunt's Dreams The Elephant Ear The News of Sheikha Ibrahim My Absent Cousin My Brother Omar Part Two Collapse For the Sake of Seven Dollars O Waiting Whatever Happened to Antara The Picture of the Naked Man Lost Ornamentation The Worm An Explosion Interview with Walid Ikhlassi

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Louie] is elegant, funny, a touch spooky, and has as fine a hair-trigger control of alienation and absurdity as any of the best of his generation." * Los Angeles Times *"Louie sneaks up on his readers—his stories crystallize in explosions of pathos and wit." * San Diego Tribune *"These stories are lovely." * New York Newsday *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Louie] is elegant, funny, a touch spooky, and has as fine a hair-trigger control of alienation and absurdity as any of the best of his generation." * Los Angeles Times *"Louie sneaks up on his readers—his stories crystallize in explosions of pathos and wit." * San Diego Tribune *"These stories are lovely." * New York Newsday *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Santos writes simply and skillfully of his countrymen who leave home for America, of the pain of separation, loneliness, longing, yesterday’s hopes and tomorrow’s dreams. His portraits of these gentle, courageous exiles are moving as he shows how each one struggles to make his way in the new land, trying to find a life far from his roots while sustained by the dream of a return home. . . . Santos gets to the heart of what it is like to be uprooted, alone, alien." -- Publishers Weekly"Mr. Santos is a master at giving the reader a sense of people speaking in many languages and dialects." -- Maxine Hong Kingston, New York Times Book Review"Santos is a writer of deceptive simplicity, one whose graceful storytelling conceals considerable political commitment. . . . His stories capture with warmth and deep humanity the pain of exile and the cost of progress." -- Washington Post"The whole collection is affecting—a small, unexpected gift from a writer with a welcome new voice." -- Kirkus Reviews"Mr. Santos’s best pieces are exquisitely crafted works which examine with irony, humor, and humanity the plight of Filipinos in America." -- Studies in Short Fiction

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Book SynopsisA dazzling collection about how the familiar can suddenly turn strange.Trade Review"...highly appealing stories..." -- Sunday Herald

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Book SynopsisTo celebrate her biography of Constance Fenimore Woolson, Anne Boyd Rioux has selected the best of this classic writer’s stories.

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Book Synopsis"Latiolais is as close to Alice Munro as a writer can get, but with a more modern edge."—Los Angeles TimesTrade Review"The underappreciated master of short- and long-form fiction brilliantly combines the two in She…" -- O, The Oprah Magazine"To us, there is much about Los Angeles that is both strange and familiar, and Latiolais with her precise, clean writing and her novel-short story hybrid, manages to show it all." -- Emerald Street

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Book SynopsisFeatures stories that center around often hardscrabble small-town life in one rural community. Like any other place, it's a community, where both the banal and the improbable coalesce, a place with its share of common tragedies and uncommon madmen, some of whom howl at the moon, and others who turn out to be heroes.

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Book SynopsisIn these seven stories spanning the Midwest to California, Charles McLeod brings us characters estranged from their homelands and locked in conflict with their past and present selves. Alternating between the comic, the tragic, and the neurotic, McLeod’s second collection transports readers from the American mainstream to the dark edges of cities and the heartland’s lost, forgotten towns.

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Book SynopsisA collection of stories that touches on the mysteries that make up our lives.Trade ReviewElaine Ford's collection roams the territory between the intellect and the heart. She writes of the human condition with precision, in language that is both grave and conversational. Her characters step out of the real world onto the page, where she develops them quietly, but with compassionate fullness. This writer grips the reader with her keen knowledge of the psyche of individuals - their motives and secrets - and also with the surprising things that happen to them. - Laura Kasischke, judge, Michigan Literary Fiction Awards

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Book SynopsisThailand's foremost writers about women are brought together in this collection of 11 short stories and excerpts from five novels. The selection shows the many ways fiction has mirrored the lives of Thai women over the 20th century.Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Notes on Transliteration Introduction PART ONE: MOTHERS Contents Grandmother the Progressive Junlada Phakdiphumin Deep in the Heart of a Mother Wat Wanlayankul From People of Quality Dok Mai Sot From A Child of the Northeast Kampoon Boontawee Matsii PART TWO: WIVES AND LOVERS Snakes Weep, Flowers Smile Suwanee Suklwntha From Behind the Painting Sri Burapha From That Woman's Name is Boonrawd Botan Deaf Sim Prabhassorn Sevikul A Pot That Scouring Will Not Save Anchan When She Was a Major Wife Subha Devakul Sai-roong's Dream of Love Sri Dao Ruang From This Human Vessel Krisna Asoksin PART THREE: DAUGHTERS The Dancing Girl Ussiri Dhammachoti Greenie Manop Thanomsri A Mote of Dust on the Face of the Earth Preechapoul Bloonchuay Appendix: Kings of the Chakri Dynasty Bibliography Suggested Reading Sources of Publications Index

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Book SynopsisEdgar Allan Poe is perhaps America’s most famous writer. Yet he remains misunderstood, his works easily confused with the legend of a troubled genius. In this annotated edition of tales and poems, Kevin J. Hayes debunks the Poe myth, enables a larger appreciation of Poe’s career and varied achievements, and investigates his weird afterlives.Trade ReviewThe Annotated Poe is a stupendous hit. The annotations—presented in the form of marginalia and printed, delightfully, in red—provided by Hayes are perfectly, uncannily pitched to appeal both to readers who’ve never read a word of Edgar Allan Poe and readers who know his works backwards and forwards… It’s a bravura performance, lavish with illustrations. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Monthly *A lushly illustrated volume that elucidates some of Poe’s best-loved works. -- Jan Gardner * Boston Globe *Poe startles and enchants, but he springs traps for the unwary. There is no better guide through Poe’s magic house of mirrors than Kevin Hayes, who brings a wealth of expertise to his annotations. This handsomely produced edition is a treasure-house for Poe novices and initiates alike. -- Nicholas Frankel, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityRecommended…for anyone who has an interest in Poe’s life and work. -- Morris Hounion * Library Journal *By giving Poe the scholarly attention he deserves, Harvard University Press’s beautifully designed new edition The Annotated Poe combats the demeaning cliches. Novelist and critic William Giraldi’s foreword elegantly places Poe within his historical, biographical, and critical context. Editor Kevin J. Hayes picked a savvy selection of tales and poems and provides richly detailed and deeply insightful notes that consistently add complexity and depth to the texts. The beautiful illustrations from all manner of media amplify some of the more ethereal of Poe’s imaginative creations. This new edition invites readers to take a fresh look at Poe and his far-ranging artistic legacy. -- Matt Hanson * Arts Fuse *

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Book SynopsisKurt Schwitters revolutionized the art world in the 1920s with his Dadaist Merz collages, theater performances, and poetry. But at the same time he was also writing extraordinary fairy tales that were turning the genre upside down and inside out. This book gathers thirty-two stories written between 1925 and Schwitters' death in 1948.Trade Review"These byproducts from [Schwitters,] a man who tried his hand at much else, and gained relatively little attention for any of it, who lived with his parents and then in the house he inherited from them in a no-account place in Germany, and then in exile, are among the few wonderful and imperishable things of the twentieth century."--Michael Hofmann, New York Review of Books "Jack Zipes has now usefully collected and translated a handy anthology of Schwitters short stories, written from 1918 to 1948, selecting those he considers to be 'oddly modern fairy tales.' ... Schwitters's Merz fairy tales are lies that speak the truth."--Peter Read, Times Literary Supplement "Mostly unpublished during Schwitters's lifetime, the tales have been rescued from oblivion by teams of eager Germanists, and selected, translated and introduced for this edition by eminent fairytale scholar Jack Zipes. The tales are accompanied by cutely sinister illustrations by Irvine Peacock."--Justin Clemens, The Australian "Including four pieces Schwitters wrote in English--he had abandoned German, as the Nazis' language--this volume stands as a substantial, chronologically representative, and delightful addition to the still small number of texts by Schwitters published in the U.S. Zipes supplies snappy translations and a thoughtful critical introduction."--ChoiceTable of ContentsTranslator's Note and Acknowledgments xi Kurt Schwitters, Politics, and the Merz Fairy Tale 1 Tales Written in German Chapter 1: The Swineherd and the Great, Illustrious Writer 41 Der Schweinehirt und der Dichterfurst (1925) Chapter 2: Lucky Hans 49 Der gluckliche Hans (1925) Chapter 3: Happiness 57 Das Gluck (1925) Chapter 4: The Little Clock Spirit and the Lovers 61 Uhrgeistchen und Liebespaar (1925) Chapter 5: The Proud Young Woman 63 Das stolze Madchen (1925) Chapter 6: An Old Fairy Tale 67 Altes Marchen (1925) Chapter 7: The Scarecrow 72 Die Scheuche (1925)--A children's book created with Kate Steinitz and Theo van Doesburg Chapter 8: He 85 Er (1927) Chapter 9: Fish and Man 103 Fisch und Mensch (1927) Chapter 10: The Squinting Doll 105 Die schielende Puppe (1927) Chapter 11: Three Suitcases 107 Drei Koff er (1927) Chapter 12: Fairy Tale 115 Marchen (1928) Chapter 13: A King without People 116 Konig ohne Volk (1932) Chapter 14: The Story about the Good Man 119 Die Fabel vom guten Menschen (1933) Chapter 15: Happy Country 121 Gluckliches Land (1933) Chapter 16: The Story about the Rabbit 123 Die Geschichte vom Hasen (1934) Chapter 17: The Three Wishes 125 Die drei Wunsche (1936) Chapter 18: The Ugly Young Woman: A Fairy Tale 131 Das hassliche Madchen: Ein Marchen (1937) Chapter 19: The Two Brothers 137 Die beiden Bruder (1938) Chapter 20: The Fish and the Ship's Propeller 143 Der Fisch und die Schiff sschraube (1938) Chapter 21: Transformations 145 Verwandlungen (1938) Chapter 22: He Who Is Mentally Retarded 153 Der, der da geistig arm ist (1938) Chapter 23: Hans and Grete: A Fairy Tale about Children Who Live in the Woods 161 Hans und Grete: Marchen von Kindern, die im Walde wohnen (1939) Chapter 24: The Fairy Tale about Happiness 165 Das Marchen vom Gluck (1930-1940) Chapter 25: Normal Insanity 169 Normaler Unsinn (1930-1940) Chapter 26: What Is Happiness 173 Was ist das Gluck (1940-1945) Chapter 27: The Man with the Glass Nose 179 Der Mann mit dem glasernen Nase (1945) Chapter 28: Once upon a Time There Was a Tiny Mouse 183 Es war einmal eine kleine Maus (1941-1946) Tales Written in English Chapter 29: The Flat and the Round Painter 189 (1941) Chapter 30: London: A Fairy Tale 193 (1942) Chapter 31: The Flying Fish 197 (1944) Chapter 32: Twopenny Novel about an Ugly Girl 203 (1941-1945) Appendix: German Version of "Die Scheuche" 207 Notes 221 Bibliography 233

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Book SynopsisWhether writing of insomnia from a mosquito's point of view or showing us what happens after the princess kisses the frog, Ana María Shua, in these fleet and incandescent stories, is nothing if not pithy - except, of course, wildly entertaining. Some as short as a sentence, these microfictions have been selected and translated from four different books.Trade Reviewhttp://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=2081http://nebraskapress.typepad.com/university_of_nebraska_pr/2009/06/short-stories-on-twitter-short-stories-on-recommended-reading-list.html"Argentinean poet Shua is a master of the bon mot. Each of these concise, lyrical pieces—somewhere between aphorism, anecdote and poem, and rarely longer than a paragraph—contains a fluid, perplexing, and (often) highly amusing thought. . . . These dreamlike landscapes will delight and charm readers new to Shua’s work."—Publishers Weekly"This is a very enjoyable collection, and the best pieces impress mightily; certainly one is left hungry for more of these morsels. Well worthwhile."—M. A. Orthofer, Complete Review"Moving from the familiar to the strange in simple sentences, and somehow finding the worlds within our world this collection of stories bewilders and delights all at once. . . . An intriguing genre, it reeks of freshness and should be explored."—2009 MOSAIC "Treat the various stories like abstract art, rather than typical works of English. They are most enjoyable after rolling around in one's mind for a time. They are exquisite to ponder. They have subtle meanings and messages that can be searched for."—Clinton Borror, Big Muddy“The microfictions of Ana María Shua unfurl an absurd and ingenious world like that of Lewis Carroll. . . . What great literature breathes in these pages!”—A B C (Madrid)“Argentinean Ana María Shua is one of the best creators of the microstory genre. An ingenious and absurd world in which pulsates the best literature.”—El País (Madrid)“Shua’s microfictions are paradigms of wicked humor. The author shows herself capable repeatedly of zeroing in on a detail—perverse, quirky, often appalling—of the unstable reality of human experience and revealing it to be the essence of ordinary daily existence.”—David William Foster, Regents’ Professor of Spanish and Women & Gender Studies at Arizona State University, and editor of Chasqui: Revista de literatura latinoamericanaTable of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. Monsters 2. Dreams 3. Magic 4. Health 5. Literature 6. Men and Women 7. Faith

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Book SynopsisForbidden love was a forbidden topic. Decorum was everythingin society, where Catholicism dictated the terms, and in literature, where a code of decency governed writers and readers alike. To women were left the pale love stories that conducted appropriate partners in proper settings to socially acceptable outcomes. So it was in Latin America well into the twentieth century. The stories in this volume announce a dramatic change, a transformation of the literature of love in Latin America, and of the roleeven the natureof women in this most feminine literary tradition. These stories, by exciting new writers as well as by the renowned, are violations of the most exhilarating sort, flouting conventions of language, behavior, subject matter, and style to remake and widen our once-narrow view of the literary landscape of Latin America. Here women writers from Mexico and Brazil, Colombia and Argentina, Cuba, Peru, and Uruguay break social, religious, political, and sexual barriers inTrade Review"Hughes translates with tremendous grace. Each piece retains a distinct, powerful voice, treating readers to a chorus of accomplished Latin American authors. . . . Each writer displays a mastery of storytelling and the beauty of the written word. . . . The stories are erotic, but the prose remains elegant, tasteful, and sophisticated. . . . [A] fiery and very contemporary collection."—Foreword Magazine“The stories announce a dramatic change, a transformation of literature of love in Latin America, and of the role—even the nature—of women in this most ‘feminine’ literary tradition.”—Psiche Hughes, The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education“These stories reflect radically feminist views of the religious and social traditions of Latin America. . . . narrations skillfully molded by the structuring of actions and the richness of language. . . . The translation does justice to the beauty of the original language.”—Rosita Chazarreta-Rourke, Multicultural Review

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, this daring collection of nine stories introduces readers to an edgy vision and a world in which certainties are tested and found wanting. The characters in these stories must find their way to a truth that, though less than perfect, is one they can live with.Trade Review"It is easy to see how this debut collection was selected as the winner of this year's Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction. These stories remind us of the attributes that give short fiction its special appeal. . . . A remarkable debut for all readers of fiction."—Sue Russell, Library Journal"Gilley's debut collection offers admirably constructed narratives from which his troubled protagonists emerge bearing small, resonant victories. . . . Telling, make-or-break moments are the crux of Gilley's stories, allowing his sharply etched characters to find unexpected purpose under fire."—Publishers Weekly"Bliss and Other Stories is a great collection by a gifted writer."—Kevin O'Kelly, Boston Globe"Each story is a small pleasure. . . . While many tales involve the quiet situations often found in contemporary American short stories, these stand apart, thanks to Gilley's knack for effortless dialogue in whichever diverse, everyday situation he plumbs."—Annie Tully, Booklist Online"[Bliss and Other Short Stories] is as startling as stumbling upon a full, immense moon—scarred white and sharp above the trees—and just as quiet. This collection's nine stories serve up people who are reeling in the borderland between desire and despair, trying to survive the only way they know how: by recounting their stories and scrambling to make sense of their worlds' unraveling."—Stacy Muszynski, Rumpus.net"Gilley maps contemporary America in ordinary towns on both coasts, and although his stories range in location, they pulse with his masterful attention to place, the poetry of his images, and the predicaments of lives no longer simple."—Rachel Bara, Colorado State UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsAll Hallows’ Eve Bliss Vanishing World White House of Prayer Physical Wisdom Mountains of the Moon Invisible Waves The End Zone

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Book SynopsisPerhaps best known for editing the popular post-World War II magazines Galaxy Science Fiction and Beyond Fantasy Fiction, Horace L. Gold also wrote comic-book scripts for DC Comics and numerous pulp adventures and science-fiction stories. This collection of seven of these stories captures the timeless emotions evoked by pulp and science fiction for the twenty-first century.Table of ContentsIntroduction by E. J. GoldAt the PostI Know SuicideLove in the DarkA Matter of FormThe Old Die RichPerfect MurderProblem in Murder

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Book SynopsisA collection of stories ranging from rural tales of death to a retelling of the biblical Job story, in which a skeletonized Job trades barbs and blows with a murderous lumberjack.Trade Review"Showing off Evenson's myriad skills, the stories range from rural tales of death to a retelling of the biblical Job story, in which a skeletonized Job trades barbs and blows with a murderous lumberjack. . . . There is a detached brutality to the collection, similar to Beckett's novels, which, due to Evenson's precise control over language is both disturbing and compelling."—Review of Contemporary Fiction"The spirit of Edgar Allan Poe inhabits this collection of violent and mysterious stories that recall not only that master of the perverse but also the seamier side of the nightly news. . . . Many of these tales, particularly the short-shorts, remain enigmatic, resistant to any explication; yet even they are told in such a compelling fashion that one reads not to understand but merely to witness."—Publishers Weekly"Evenson has created a fascinating, mysterious, and austere prose set in scenes that attain the precision of staged burlesque. Through the sparse economy of the plot and settings, Evenson's great moral sensibility is glimpsed behind the carnival mask of apparently frivolous murder."—Seattle Weekly

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Book SynopsisOne day Roger Welsch ventured to ask his father a delicate personal question: “Why am I an only child?” His father’s answer is one of many examples of the delightful and laughter-inducing ribald tales Welsch has compiled from a lifetime of listening to and sharing the folklore of the Plains.Trade Review"Very, very funny."—Julie Henigan, Journal of Folklore Research"As a playfully analytical look at our human penchant for the "slightly naughty" this one, like all Welsch's other collections of Plains stories, is a delight."—Nancy S. Gillis, Nebraska History"Roger Welsch is a superb writer and folklorist for the same reasons that he was a superb classroom teacher in our German class back in 1958. He has mastered his subject, he admires and respects his audience, he has an extraordinary sense of humor, and he is a thoroughly gifted storyteller."—Dwayne Strasheim, Great Plains Quarterly“Roger Welsch is a funny man. He is also dead serious about making sure the traditions of his Nebraska homeland are not soon forgotten. . . . Place Roger Welsch securely in the good company of American regionalists whose catalog of life works spans the nuts and bolts of a life well told. . . . Whether your copy sits by your bedside or toilet, on your coffee table or tractor seat, buy it, read it, and by all means share it.”—Elaine Eff, Maryland folklorist “Roger Welsch has his finger firmly on the pulse of rural Plains humor because it’s his own pulse. He knows this tradition from a life spent where it happens—in the field, the tavern, the church hall, and the pickup cab—and his ear is perfectly attuned to catch its modest, ribald hilarity.”—Tim Lloyd, executive director of the American Folklore Society “I don’t know which I admire more, Roger Welsch’s life style or his prose style.”—Chris Porterfield, writer for Time magazine, author, and producer “It would be difficult to find a folklorist more prolific and more popular than Roger Welsch, or ‘Captain Nebraska’ as some have dubbed him with great affection, following his hugely successful years as a correspondent on CBS News Sunday Morning. . . . Readers in Nebraska and beyond will be pleased to see yet another volume of good-humored Plains folklore in this latest work collected by Roger Welsch.”—Elaine J. Lawless, Curators’ Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Missouri and past president of the American Folklore Society “Roger Welsch is ready to deliver a smile when the moment is right. He is the Cialis of humor.”—Mike Plews, member, RW Fan Club “Welsch’s book is 100 percent humor, born of friendships in the taverns and communities of rural Nebraska. This folklore historian who has rugged good looks and a titanic sense of humor (and who owes me a drink) has knocked it out of the park—again.”—T. Marni Vos, humorist and president of Laughter’s Echo Inc.Table of ContentsForewordAcknowledgmentsA Brief but Suitably Scholarly and Boring IntroductionBut Enough about Me—What Do You Know about Me?Plain Talk about the Plains, Definitions, and What Folklore Is, Isn’t, Might Be, and Is MostlyA Lesson in Proper DictionWhy I’m an Only ChildA Special AnnouncementDad Instructs Me about Civil Ribaldry Even as I Thought I Was Instructing HimNaughty Is in the Ears of the BeholderA First Lesson in Military NomenclatureDiction FrictionEvoked and ProvokedCipherin’Thinking FastCold . . . and DeepIn-house OuthousesSpeaking of Treed RaccoonsHarvard LawUrban v. RuralThe Eternal CuckoldNow’s Your ChanceUsing the ImaginationWays of the WiseTraffic FlowSpeaking of the Innocence of the Gentler SexOh, Dat Ole! Oh, Dat Lena!Same Idea, Different NamesNo Boyz AloudThe Church of What?What Did He Say?How You Gonna Keep ’Em down on the Farm (after They’ve Seen the Farm)?Birds Do It, Bees Do ItIndiscreet SecretionsWhy Is It Called a “Fly?”Geriatric IndignitiesCallow YouthAge Has Nothing to Do with ItInnocent? Or Simply Not Guilty?Other UnmentionablesAn Afterword

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Book SynopsisThe seventeen narratives of The Common Lot and Other Stories, published in popular magazines across the United States between 1908 and 1921 and collected here for the first time, are driven by Emma Bell Miles’s singular vision of the mountain people of her home in southeastern Tennessee.Trade Review“We’re just beginning to understand Miles’s creative output. The publication of her short stories, seen again in print for the first time in a hundred years, marks an important contribution to scholarship on rural Appalachian fiction and her role in women’s fiction of the era. Grace Toney Edwards is the leading authority today on Miles’s writings, and is the one to interpret and bring these stories forward.”

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Book SynopsisEach of the crystalline worlds Cary Holladay brings us in the short stories and novella that make up Brides in the Sky has sisterhood, in all its urgency and peril, at its heart. She crafts these stories with subtle humor, a stunning sense of place, and an unerring eye for character.Trade Review“In unsentimental but intimate detail, a collection of stories peels back stereotypes about the lives of women in the past.…In spare but evocative prose, Holladay skillfully and subtly re-creates those earlier times while making clear their parallels to the present.…Women and girls often overlooked by history are given compelling voices in this collection.” * Kirkus Reviews *“I devoured (Brides in the Sky) and only wished it were longer. Discovering Cary Holladay is the best thing that happened to me during my many months of reading for this chronicle. Her stories take you in with vivid characters, compelling plots, humor and insight.” * Hudson Review *“…[Imagines] the lives of women who participated, unnamed, in so much of American history.…Backed by a beautiful sense of place.” * Garden & Gun *“Brides in the Sky contributes beautifully to [Holladay‘s] body of work, its stories brimming with vibrant life, nuanced characters, and plots fueled by surprising turns.…Brides in the Sky also delivers when it comes to sheer entertainment.” * Chapter 16 *“[The title story] does that great thing that [Alice Munro’s work] does where it travels these great distances of geography and time, and you never feel like you’re missing anything.…The amount of emotion that Cary Holladay is able to put in three sentences, it just feels like someone is punching you right in the heart.” * on All Sides Weekend *“One after another, the pieces collected here startle and illuminate. From the Sundance Kid’s sweetheart to a child-snatching sorority sister to a heroic telephone operator and more, Brides in the Sky exposes the limitations of our assumptions, while deftly reinventing story form. Each narrative here proves an astonishment, a marvel.”“Every tale in this superb collection, from its shortest stories to its novella, is a world unto itself. Each bursts with distinctive life, and yet all feel eerily connected. Holladay moves with such ease in and out of time, in and out of such a diversity of hearts, that you feel you’re under the spell of a guide who knows the secrets of all the old houses on the street. She can show you every room—and the exquisite ghosts therein. Her tour is brilliantly imagined, deeply felt, and beautifully told.”“Brides in the Sky is a masterful sweep of time and imagination, and an exceptional display of voice and character. These stories span centuries, livelihoods, and the great dimension of Holladay’s impressive creativity and heart. Each story works to pull you into its ‘embrace as warm as a rug.’ And while you’re snuggled there, you look up to the Milky Way’s ‘great folds and curtains and cobwebs of stars.’ Brides in the Sky sparkles like these stars.”

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Book SynopsisIn these short stories, Jack Forbes captures the remarkable breadth and variety of American Indian life. Drawing on his skills as scholar and native activist, and, above all, as artist, Forbes enlarges our sense of how American Indians experience themselves and the world around them.

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Book SynopsisFollows four very different protagonists as they search for, and struggle with, connection. Pairing the emotional pursuit of connection with multiple forms of communication, Matthew Baker weaves the languages of HTML, maths, musical notations, and propositional logic into his storytelling in order to unveil nuances of experiences and emotions.

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Book SynopsisMary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930) was one of the most popular American writers at the turn of the twentieth century, and her annual Christmas stories appeared in magazines and periodicals across the globe. For the first time, The Last Gift presents a collection of Freeman’s best Christmas writing.Trade ReviewThomas Ruys Smith's edition of Freeman's Christmas stories is a revelation! All our presumptions about holiday stories being drenched in sentimentality are demolished by the ways in which Freeman probes the multiple meanings inherent in the acts of giving and receiving gifts and exposes the forms of both solitude and communion inherent in Christmas. This collection transforms our understanding of the season and enhances the literary reputation of this remarkable author." - Alfred Bendixen, executive director of the American Literature Association"A lovely and varied collection of Freeman's often-neglected Christmas stories. Smith's lively introduction contextualizes Freeman's portrayal of the holiday season, in all of its complexity, and the domestic tensions that Christmas evoked for nineteenth-century women." - Leah Blatt Glasser, author of In a Closet Hidden: The Life and Work of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

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Book SynopsisOffers contemporary readers seventy-three short stories by one of twentieth-century Russia's premier storytellers, Isaac Babel. This unique volume, which includes Babel's famous Red Calvary series and his Odessa Stories, was translated, edited, introduced, and annotated by Val Vinokur, and features illustrations by Yefim Ladyzhensky.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisThe great nineteenth-century Portuguese author Jose Maria Eca de Queiros has long been known for his novels. However, he also wrote short stories. Although there is no question that Eca owes the lion's share of his reputation to his long fiction, this collection shows us that we are reading the work of a writer in full control of both genres.

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Book SynopsisTranslated for the first time in English, this collection of short fiction details the plight of urban Algerian women and raises far-reaching issues. The stories criticise the post-colonial socialist regime, which is seen as denying and subjugating women whilst celebrating the liberation of men.

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Book SynopsisFeatures a collection of the author's short stories such as 'And All This Unease', 'Madness Had Come with the Rain', and 'The Survivors'.Trade Review"Lahens is the most important living female Haitian author in French. Her short stories in particular demonstrate an art, a style, and a political commitment of the highest caliber. Through the intimate window of Lahens's mode of realism, this collection invites the gaze of the Anglophone world onto her country's unique array of troubles." - Christiane Makward, Pennsylvania State University, coeditor of Plays by French and Francophone Women: A Critical Anthology"

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Book SynopsisReflected in these writings from twenty-one Irish Americans are the themes common to all immigrant literature, but from the authors' own ethnic point of view. Editors Casey and Rhodes have organized these pieces chronologically, beginning at the turn of the century.Trade ReviewCasey and Rhodes have assembled a collection of short stories and excerpts from novels refreshing in its wit and novelty. . . . Pleasurable reading. A very useful collection of representative pieces from 21 writers from the turn of the century, with a major introduction and notes on each writer. Demonstrates that 20th-century Irish-American literature sustains a rich, nuanced voice, which like American Black and Jewish fiction, blends harmoniously into a long-standing tradition. . . . The editors have chosen works that best indicate the enduring characteristics of Irish-American literary practice.Table of Contents"The Next Parish - an Introduction", Daniel J.Casey and Robert E.Rhodes; "Dooley's Neighborhood", Finley Peter Dunne; "Benediction", F.Scott Fitzgerald; "Studs", James T.Farrell; "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", Betty Smith; "Mort and Mary", John O'Hara; "Yonder Peasant, Who Is He?", Mary McCarthy; "The Cemetery", Brendan Gill; "Bill", J.F.Powers; "Mrs Reardon's Gamble", Mary Doyle Curran; "A Grand Day for Mr Garvey", Edwin O'Connor; "The New York Girls", Joseph Dever; "A Temple of the Holy Ghost", Flannery O'Connor; "A Fairy Tale of New York", J.P.Donleavy; "Billy Phelan's Greatest Game", William Kennedy; "The Three Pigs of Krishna Nuru", Maureen Howard; "World Without End, Amen", Jimmy Breslin; "Life After Death", Elizabeth Cullinan; "Murphy's Christmas", Mark Costello; "The Gift", Pete Hamill; "Fogarty & Co", Joe Flaherty; "The Neighborhood", Mary Gordon.

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Book SynopsisFeatures 22 stories, an excerpt from a novella, and fifteen poems rendered into English by some of the best-known translators of Turkish literature. Sait Faik's chiaroscuro world is brought into focus by an introductory essay on utopian poetics and lyrical stylistics of this Turkish writer.

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Book SynopsisThis is a grouping of some 40 short stories that attempts to capture the essence of everyday life in the small Middle East country of Kuwait. The stories explore life in Kuwait from an American expatriate's perspective.

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Book SynopsisA translated collection of author David Ehrlich's short stories originally written in Hebrew. The translators are writers, teachers, activists, doctors, or rabbis and they all bring a unique voice to stories of life and the search for meaning within it. Ehrich is the author of two short story collections and his bookstore Tmol Shilshom is a haven for avant-garde artists and writers.

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Book SynopsisIntroduces nineteen of Jonah Rosenfeld's short stories to an English-reading audience for the first time. Unlike much of Yiddish literature that offers a sentimentalized view of the tight knit communities of early twentieth-century Jewish life, Rosenfeld's stories portray an entirely different view of pre-war Jewish families.

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Book SynopsisHow does one translate experience into fiction? This work includes specific and practical guidance on the art, craft, and business of writing short stories. It offers advice on exploring sources, galvanizing the imagination, studying stories, and then writing them.

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Book Synopsis

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