Isidore Mirsky, the narrator of Paul Lisicky’s gorgeous novel The Burning House, desperately wants to be a good man. He loves his wife. He loves where he lives. He wants to do good work. He wants a purpose. He wants to be good. The problem is that Isidore doesn’t really know who he is anymore outside of his lusts and fears and indiscretions. Indeed, … Read More The Burning House, by Paul Lisicky
+ books, fiction, flash fiction, literary, PANK Little Books, short stories, short story, small press, writers
I do believe that Hard to Say, a painfully beautiful linked collection of stories by Ethel Rohan, will leave you as speechless as it did me. The book begins with a young woman whose own desire not to speak her family’s many secrets chokes her. It is not until she envisions herself speaking, through a dream of bloodletting, that her stories are set free. Long kept hidden … Read More Hard to Say, by Ethel Rohan
At the heart of Roxane Gay‘s devastating debut collection, Ayiti, is truth. Whether a language is shared or a language divides, what it offers, when spoken with strength and authority, is an opportunity to share the truth. There is a connection to the desire for truth from the title of the book, which is the Haitian Creole for Haiti, to the final words, which … Read More Ayiti, by Roxane Gay
It seems an oversimplification to say that Patricia Henley’s gorgeous new short story collection, Other Heartbreaks, will break your heart. But it will. It will break your heart again and again but you will come back to it, begging for more. You will come back because this is what love it about. The thrill of attraction, the comfort of togetherness, the razor’s edge of disintegration. … Read More Other Heartbreaks, by Patricia Henley
+ books, Echolocation, Ellen Meister, Engine Books, fiction, Myfanwy Collins, novel, Victoria Barrett, writers, writing books
Absolutely thrilled and delighted to announce that my novel, Echolocation, is available for pre-order here: Echolocation here’s the first beautiful blurb: “Fearless, elegant, and accessible, Echolocation is literary fiction at its best. With heartbreakingly beautiful prose, Myfanwy Collins tells a gripping and tender tale of broken souls yearning for wholeness. These are characters who will stay with you long after you turn the last … Read More my novel, ECHOLOCATION, available for pre-order!
If you’re like me, when you finish the brilliant new chapbook Wild Life just about every other page will be dog eared. From the prodigal brother eating watermelon in the dark, to the Payless shoe store clerk who may or may not be a child abductor, to the couple with the new bed, you will turn the last page of this book and feel … Read More Wild Life, by Kathy Fish
+ Echolocation, Engine Books, fiction, I Am Holding Your Hand, Myfanwy Collins, novel, PANK Little Books, Roxane Gay, short stories, Victoria Barrett, writers, writing books
20 years ago, I was finishing up my first summer out of college. I was teaching summer school (a miserable experience for both the students and me) and I had much to look forward to. I had finished writing my first novel and my agent at the time was sending it out to publishers. I had a handful of stories upon which my creative … Read More 20 years ago and today
Told from many different points of view Peter Grandbois’s stunning new novel Nahoonkara is the story of brothers and husbands and wives and children and women and men and mothers all striving to find a place for themselves in a world which is sometimes puzzling to them. On the surface, the story takes place mainly in Wisconsin and a mining town in Colorado, but … Read More Nahoonkara by Peter Grandbois
After she finished reading Andre Dubus III’s new memoir Townie one of my friends called me and asked, “Is this book as good as I think it is or is it just that I grew up around all of these places he writes about?” I told her that while place is certainly important in the book, the book is exactly as good as she … Read More Townie, by Andre Dubus III
The stories in this new printing of Randall Brown’s debut chapbook, Mad to Live, absolutely sparkle with desire—for life, for love, for something unnamable. They are stories about sons and fathers and husbands and wives and lovers—all burning with want. I found words for this want in one of the “bonus track” stories entitled “Out of Love” in which the narrator says: “The ache … Read More Mad to Live, by Randall Brown
From the beginning, I’d found Witness, a book of exquisitely written essays, deeply moving. The book begins with Smith and his wife grappling with the news that their unborn child has a hole in his heart. It’s a worst nightmare beginning. But things turn out okay. The child is born. The child thrives. The child teaches the parents so much about themselves. And it … Read More Witness, by Curtis Smith
myfanwy collins 