"With sharp, precise prose, Ewing's stories remind of Annie Proulx and Denis Johnson. These are Polaroids collected on a shelf, forgotten, then viewed again to tell of the lives they once chronicled—now dusty, scratched, lost. The effect is magnificent." —Christian Kiefer, author of Phantoms “Ewing’s debut tunes to a haunting static.” —FOREWORD REVIEWS "These landscapes, these characters, this prose, my god, it grabs you and it doesn't...

"We think about it every day, sometimes every hour: Money. Who has it. Who doesn't. How you get it. How you don't. In Refund, Bender creates an award-winning collection of stories that deeply explore the ways in which money and the estimation of value affect the lives of her characters. The stories in Refund reflect our contemporary world-swindlers, reality show creators, desperate artists, siblings, parents - who try to answer the question: What...

"A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With her trademark blend of humor and melancholy, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday uncovering moments of grace in the cafeterias and Laundromats of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Northern California upper classes, and from the perspective of a cleaning woman alone in a hotel dining room in Mexico City. The women of Berlin's stories...

Every person leaves a legacy; so does every character. Lonely outcasts. Found wanderers. Recovering addicts. War-weary heroes. Homeless families. Grieving loved ones. Good men—gone too soon. Each one’s story stands alone, yet all unite along a common thread of dreams pursued and legacy left in this collection of short stories. One life flows into another as each character connects to the next. A person’s past can deepen their...

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF JUST RUNNING AWAY FROM IT ALL? In Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road, free-spirited Americans fleeing mundane and disappointing lives head south in search of a fresh start. When they end up in Playa Paraiso—a lush, unspoiled beach town on Mexico’s idyllic Caribbean coast—they discover the hedonistic and unpredictable world of the tropics. Poppa, the savvy, irreverent owner of the local beach bar, is always...

A collection of rhythmic prose and poetry. "The reader forms an attachment to the author/narrator as the parts meld into a story. The majority of the work is one - to two-page vignettes that create almost a novel in verse... Absorbing, an otherwise intriguing window into history." - Kirkus Discoveries "We Lack a Word is definitely a book for seekers and thinkers. A thought-provoking book that stimulates one's intellect. The poetry, all of it,...

"From a bar hosting its nightly Sad Hour to the moonlit sandbox of a retired army general, Jim Heynen's new collection of micro fiction presents character sketches of strange yet fascinating men and women. Modeled after Theophrastus' Characters - brief, verbal snapshots of people created by the Greek philosopher - Heynen captures not just the quirks and eccentricities of his characters, but also their humanity. Guilty of only ordinary and forgivable...

Dwarves and golems, Fates and minotaurs, metamorphoses, murder, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Each story in L.S. Johnson’s remarkable collection demonstrates the limitless capacity of intelligent speculative fiction to enthrall, inspire, and amaze.

"Written late in Anita Desai's illustrious career, these three novellas ruminate on art and memory, illusion and disillusion, and the sharp divide between life's expectations and dreams and its realities. Set in India in the not too distant past, the stories' diverse surroundings and dramas frame universal themes, which illuminate the ways in which various aspects of the Indian culture can nourish or suffocate. All are served up with Desai's characteristic...

Spooves is Tim Miller's debut collection of short, humorous fiction. The subject matter includes a yoga studio on the Death Star, a cookbook for frazzled parents entitled, "Quick and Crappy," the pseudoscience of the TB12 method, a singing, lovelorn egg pan, and more. This book is like a tube of strange goo that will make you laugh, or, at the very least, ponder the plural of "spoof."