New Stories from the Midwest

Description

Fiction from the heart of the country

Visit the companion site for New Stories from the Midwest

New Stories from the Midwest presents a collection of stories that celebrate an American region too often ignored in discussions about distinctive regional literature. The editors solicited nominations from more than 300 magazines, literary journals, and small presses and narrowed the selection to 19 authors. The stories, written by Midwestern writers or focusing on the Midwest, demonstrate that the quality of fiction from and about the heart of the country rivals that of any other region. Guest editor John McNally introduces the anthology, which features short fiction by Charles Baxter, Dan Chaon, Christopher Mohar, Rebecca Makkai, Lee Martin, and others.

Contents
Acknowledgments
Editors' Note
Introduction
1. Mr. Scary Charles Baxter from Ploughshares
2. To Psychic Underworld Dan Chaon from Tin House
3. Townie Roderic Crooks from Gulf Coast
4. The Amnesiac in the Maze Michael Czyzniejewski from Ninth Letter
5. The Deep Anthony Doerr from Zoetrope
6. Circling in the Air David Driscoll from Mississippi Review
7. Down to Bone Roxane Gay from Mid-American Review
8. Starry Night Lania Knight from Jabberwock Review
9. Peter Torrelli Falling Down Rebecca Makkai from Tin House
10. In Which a Coffin Is a Bed but an Ox Is Not a Coffin Brenda K. Marshall
from Michigan Quarterly Review
11. Drunk Girl in Stilettos Lee Martin from The Georgia Review
12. The State Bird of Minnesota Charles McLeod from Michigan Quarterly Review
13. The Five Points of Performance Christopher Mohar from Southwest Review
14. The Baby Glows David James Poissant from The Southern Review
15. Splendid, Silent Sun Yelizaveta P. Renfro from Glimmer Train
16. Miscarriages Shannon Robinson from Nimrod International Journal
17. American Bulldog Chad Simpson from Crab Orchard Review
18. Twelve + Twelve Christine Sneed from Glimmer Train
19. A Dry Season Ian Stansel from Ecotone
20. Schnecks Mark Wisniewski from Alaska Quarterly Review
Contributors

Sujets

• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 22 mars 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253008251
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

NEW
Stories
FROM THE
Midwest

NEW
Stories
FROM THE
Midwest
2012
INTRODUCTION BY
GUEST EDITOR JOHN M C NALLY
EDITED BY
JASON LEE BROWN AND SHANIE LATHAM
This book is a publication of Quarry Books an imprint of
Indiana University Press Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 E. 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
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2013 by Indiana University Press All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z 39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
New Stories from the Midwest 2012 / edited by Jason Lee Brown and Shanie Latham ; with an introduction by guest editor John McNally.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-253-00818-3 (pb : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-00825-1 (eb) 1. Short stories, American-Middle West. 2. American fiction-21st century. 3. Middle West-Social life and customs-Fiction. I. Brown, Jason Lee, 1973- II. Latham, Shanie.
PS 563. N 373 2013
813 .0108977-dc23
2012047305
1 2 3 4 5 18 17 16 15 14 13
For Jay
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
EDITORS NOTE
Introduction | John McNally
1 Mr. Scary | Charles Baxter
2 To Psychic Underworld: | Dan Chaon
3 Townie | Roderic Crooks
4 The Amnesiac in the Maze | Michael Czyzniejewski
5 The Deep | Anthony Doerr
6 Circling in the Air | David Driscoll
7 Down to Bone | Roxane Gay
8 Starry Night | Lania Knight
9 Peter Torrelli, Falling Apart | Rebecca Makkai
10 In Which a Coffin Is a Bed But an Ox Is Not a Coffin | Brenda K. Marshall
11 Drunk Girl in Stilettos | Lee Martin
12 The State Bird of Minnesota | Charles McLeod
13 The Five Points of Performance | Christopher Mohar
14 The Baby Glows | David James Poissant
15 Splendid, Silent Sun | Yelizaveta P. Renfro
16 Miscarriages | Shannon Robinson
17 American Bulldog | Chad Simpson
18 Twelve + Twelve | Christine Sneed
19 A Dry Season | Ian Stansel
20 Schnecks | Mark Wisniewski
THIRTY OTHER DISTINGUISHED STORIES
CONTRIBUTORS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Mr. Scary by Charles Baxter. Reprinted from Gryphon: New and Selected Stories . Copyright 2010 by Random House, Inc., with permission of Random House, Inc. Mr. Scary first appeared in Ploughshares , vol. 36, no. 2 3 (Fall 2010).
To Psychic Underworld: by Dan Chaon. Reprinted from Stay Awake . Copyright 2011 by Random House, Inc., with permission of Random House, Inc. To Psychic Underworld: first appeared in Tin House vol. 12, no. 46 (Winter 2010).
Townie by Roderic Crooks. First published in Gulf Coast vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer/Fall 2010). Copyright 2010 by Roderic Crooks. Reprinted by permission of the author.
The Amnesiac in the Maze by Michael Czyzniejewski. First published in Ninth Letter vol. 7, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2010-11). Copyright 2010 by Michael Czyzniejewski. Reprinted by permission of the author.
The Deep by Anthony Doerr. First published in Zoetrope: All-Story vol. 14, no. 3 (Fall 2010). Also published in The Sunday Times Magazine as winner of The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award. Copyright 2010 by Anthony Doerr. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Circling in the Air by David Driscoll. First published in Mississippi Review vol. 38, no. 1 2 (Prize 2010). Copyright 2010 by David Driscoll. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Down to Bone by Roxane Gay. First published in Mid-American Review vol. 30, no. 1 2 (Fall 2009/Spring 2010). Copyright 2010 by Roxane Gay. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Starry Night by Lania Knight. First published in Jabberwock Review vol. 30, no. 2 (Winter 2010). Copyright 2010 by Lania Knight. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Peter Torrelli, Falling Apart by Rebecca Makkai. First published in Tin House vol. 12, no. 46 (Winter 2010). Copyright 2010 by Rebecca Makkai. Reprinted by permission of the author.
In Which a Coffin Is a Bed but an Ox Is Not a Coffin by Brenda K. Marshall. First published in Michigan Quarterly Review vol. 49, no. 3 (Summer 2010). Copyright 2010 by Brenda K. Marshall. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Drunk Girl in Stilettos by Lee Martin. First published in The Georgia Review (Summer 2010). Copyright 2010 by Lee Martin. Reprinted by permission of the author.
The State Bird of Minnesota by Charles McLeod. First published in Michigan Quarterly Review vol. 49, no. 3 (Summer 2010). Copyright 2010 by Charles McLeod. Reprinted by permission of the author.
The Five Points of Performance by Christopher Mohar. First published in Southwest Review vol. 95, no. 4 (2010) and won the 2010 McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Fiction. Copyright 2010 by Christopher Mohar. Reprinted by permission of the author.
The Baby Glows by David James Poissant. First published in The Southern Review vol. 46, no. 3 (Summer 2010). Copyright 2010 by David James Poissant. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Splendid, Silent Sun by Yelizaveta P. Renfro. First published in Glimmer Train no. 75 (Summer 2010) and was named 2nd-place winner of Glimmer Train Fiction Open competition. Copyright 2010 by Yelizaveta P. Renfro. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Miscarriages by Shannon Robinson. First published in Nimrod International Journal vol. 54, no. 1 (Fall/Winter 2010) and named winner of Nimrod International Journal s 2010 Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction. Copyright 2010 by Shannon Robinson. Reprinted by permission of the author.
American Bulldog by Chad Simpson. First published in Crab Orchard Review vol. 15, no. 2 (Summer/Fall 2010). Copyright 2010 by Chad Simpson. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Twelve + Twelve by Christine Sneed. Reprinted from Portraits of a Few of the People I ve Made Cry . Copyright 2010 by University of Massachusetts Press, with permission of University of Massachusetts Press. Twelve + Twelve first appeared in Glimmer Train no. 76 (Fall 2010).
A Dry Season by Ian Stansel. First published in Ecotone vol. 5, no. 2 (Spring 2010). Copyright 2010 by Ian Stansel. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Schnecks by Mark Wisniewski. First published in Alaska Quarterly Review vol. 27, no. 3 4 (Fall/Winter 2010). Copyright 2010 by Mark Wisniewski. Reprinted by permission of the author.
EDITORS NOTE
New Stories from the Midwest, 2012 showcases twenty stories set in the Midwest by midwestern and non-midwestern authors. The goals of New Stories from the Midwest are to celebrate an American region that is often ignored in discussions about distinctive regional literature and to demonstrate how the quality of fiction from and about the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin) rivals that of any other region.
To collect the stories, we solicited via flyers, letters, and e-mails for contributions from more than three hundred magazines, literary journals, and small presses. We received more than three hundred nominations from more than one hundred publications and editors. We narrowed the selection to fifty finalists, which were passed on to the guest editor, John McNally, who chose twenty stories for inclusion. The thirty stories not selected are listed at the end of the book.
Jason Lee Brown and Shanie Latham
Series Editors
NEW
Stories
FROM THE
Midwest
Introduction
John McNally
WHAT DOES IT MEAN to be a midwestern writer?
I first became aware of the idea of the regional writer in eighth grade when my father drove me to Greenfield, Indiana, for the city s James Whitcomb Riley Festival. On weekends, my father and I sold concert T-shirts at small festivals and fairs throughout Illinois and Indiana, so I became intimately familiar with the peculiar histories of each small town across I-80, up and down I-57, and beyond. But who was James Whitcomb Riley? I wanted to know. Turns out, he was a famous Hoosier poet born in Greenfield in the nineteenth century. With the hope that Mrs. Davis, my eighth grade reading-and-writing teacher, would notice and be impressed, I bought a James Whitcomb Riley Festival T-shirt and wore it to school. But Mrs. Davis didn t notice. And when I pointed it out to her, she had no idea who he was. How was it possible that she had never heard of this writer who had his own T-shirt? Was it possible to be too regional?
Well, no, I don t think so. In an essay about the importance of place, Richard Russo writes about the fear (by some writers) of being labeled a regional writer: The real fear of being labeled regional-in the sense of, say, Hamlin Garland or Sarah Orne Jewett-is its unstated implication. These writers weren t more regional than Mark Twain and Faulkner; they, I believe, were less talented, less visionary, less true. In other words: Fear not, O regional writer! Just make sure you re good. Damn good.
If all politics is local, as Tip O Neill once famously declared, then so is all fiction. The best fiction, it seems to me, is always strongly roote