Road to Nowhere and Other New Stories from the Southwest

Road to Nowhere and Other New Stories from the Southwest
Author: D. Seth Horton
Publisher: UNM Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2013-08-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0826353150

The Southwest of the twenty-first century is full of surprises, and so is this collection of southwestern short stories published between 2007 and 2011. The writers represented here remind us that this is not the “Old Southwest” of gunfighters and sagebrush but, instead, a place of rock collectors, palm readers, and Russian mail-order brides. Well-known authors like Sallie Bingham, Ron Carlson, Laura Furman, and Dagoberto Gilb are joined here by exciting newcomers Eddie Chuculate, Don Waters, Claire Vaye Watkins, and others.

Kingdom of the Sun

Kingdom of the Sun
Author: James Terry
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2016
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0826356400

Set in southwestern New Mexico, the stories in James Terry's stunning debut explore the joys, insecurities, and failures of memorable characters as they attempt to connect with--or disconnect from--others around them. The elderly landlady of the Darling Courts apartments hires a reclusive handyman who suffers from a fear of water, and the pair forms an unlikely bond. A worker's unscrupulous plan to build a road in the middle of the desert is threatened by a lonely pregnant woman living in a trailer parked directly in his path. Overcome by nostalgia, a married trucker making the California run from Waco to Los Angeles takes a truck-stop waitress to the Deming drive-in theater with disappointing results. Together, these surprising stories uncover how our environment manifests itself in our everyday lives.

NANO Fiction Volume 6 Number 2

NANO Fiction Volume 6 Number 2
Author: Barr Bielinski
Publisher: NANO Fiction
Total Pages: 64
Release:
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

NANO Fiction (print ISSN 1935-844X; digital ISSN 2160-939X) is non-profit literary journal that publishes flash fiction—a form of short story also known as micro fiction, micro narrative, micro-story, microrrelatos, postcard fiction, the short short, the short short story, kürzestgeschichten, and sudden fiction—of 300 words or fewer. Featuring twenty to thirty authors in each issue, NANO Fiction has roots that draw from Aesop’s Fables and Zen Koans. Notable practitioners of this prose form include Lydia Davis, Franz Kafka, Italo Calvino, Ignacio Martínez de Pisón, Naguib Mahfouz, and Linor Goralik, among others. This issue of NANO Fiction features works by: Allie Marini Batts, Barr Bielinski, Becky Bosshart, Cian Cruise, Chella Courington, Justin Lawrence Daugherty, Stephanie Dickinson, Barbara Westwood Diehl, Alisa Golden, Katy Gunn, Casey Hannan, Katie Jean Shinkle, Chase Holland, D. Seth Horton, Lisa Marie Hunter, Paul Kavanagh, Jacqueline Kharouf, Edan Lepucki, Matthew Mahaney, Laura McCullough, Wendy Merry, Vilaska Nguyen, Meg Pokrass, Jessica Probus, Laurence Ross, Forrest Roth, Woody Skinner, J. David Stevens, Laurie Stone, Vanessa Angelica Villarreal, Andrew Wickenden, Russ Woods, and Jacob Wren.

Inappropriate Behavior

Inappropriate Behavior
Author: Murray Farish
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2014-03-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1571319026

Short fiction about people on the edge that “masterfully balances the absurd, the horrific, and the humorous” (Booklist). The characters in Inappropriate Behavior teeter on the brink of sanity, while those around them reach out in support, watch helplessly, or duck for cover. In their loneliness, they cast about for a way to connect, to be understood, though more often than not, things go horribly wrong. Some of the characters come from the darkest recesses of American history. In ‘Lubbock Is Not a Place of the Spirit,’ a Texas Tech student recognizable as John Hinckley, Jr. writes hundreds of songs for Jodie Foster as he grows increasingly estranged from reality. Other characters are recognizable only in the sense that their situations strike an emotional chord. The young couple in ‘The Thing About Norfolk,’ socially isolated after a cross-country move, are dismayed to find themselves unable to resist sexually deviant urges. And in the deeply touching title story, a couple stretched to their limit after the husband’s layoff struggle to care for their emotionally unbalanced young son. Set in cities across America and spanning the last half-century, this collection draws a bead on our national identity, distilling our obsessions, our hauntings, our universal predicament. “Gripping and accomplished . . . These stories will be compared with works by Barry Hannah and Denis Johnson.” —Janet Peery, National Book Award finalist and author of The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs

The Library of Everything

The Library of Everything
Author: Hunter Terrell
Publisher: Paper Angel Press
Total Pages: 85
Release: 2024-04-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Welcome to The Library. This is no ordinary library. This magical place is infinite, and upon these shelves resides a book for everything … Everything. Every tree, every raindrop, every living thing that ever is, was, or will be, has a book that tells the story of their past, present, and future. Everyone has a book of their lives. That includes you. Yours is waiting, if you can find it … You are here because you have something to learn, and things you want to change about your lives and yourselves. The truths within these pages can be altered, granting you the power to bend reality to your will. But are you prepared to be the author of your own story?

Ghost Towns of the Southwest

Ghost Towns of the Southwest
Author: Jim Hinckley
Publisher: Voyageur Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2010-03-01
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 9780760332214

For centuries, the stunning panoramas of Arizona and New Mexico served as the backdrop for a veritable cavalcade of human history. From Anasazi cities built within towering canyon walls to early outpost villages of an expanding young nation, the Southwest served as the home to a range of communities that first thrived and ultimately demised in the region's rugged, sprawling landscapes. Today, the Southwest lures visitors with its majestic natural scenery and links to a fascinating chapter in our nation's history. In Ghost Towns of the Southwest, Jim Hinckley and Kerrick James present the colorful stories, colorful characters, and colorful landscapes that bring to life these landmarks of our past.

Nowhere for Very Long

Nowhere for Very Long
Author: Brianna Madia
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2022-04-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0063048000

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER • USA TODAY! BESTSELLER In this beautifully written, vividly detailed memoir, a young woman chronicles her adventures traveling across the deserts of the American West in an orange van named Bertha and reflects on an unconventional approach to life. A woman defined by motion, Brianna Madia bought a beat-up bright orange van, filled it with her two dogs Bucket and Dagwood, and headed into the canyons of Utah with her husband. Nowhere for Very Long is her deeply felt, immaculately told story of exploration—of the world outside and the spirit within. However, pursuing a life of intention isn’t always what it seems. In fact, at times it was downright boring, exhausting, and even desperate—when Bertha overheated and she was forced to pull over on a lonely stretch of South Dakota highway; when the weather was bitterly cold and her water jugs froze beneath her as she slept in the parking lot of her office; when she worried about money, her marriage, and the looming question mark of her future. But Brianna was committed to living a life true to herself, come what may, and that made all the difference. Nowhere for Very Long is the true story of a woman learning and unlearning, from backroads to breakdowns, from married to solo, and finally, from lost to found to lost again . . . this time, on purpose.

Miles from Nowhere

Miles from Nowhere
Author: Barbara Savage
Publisher: Mountaineers Books
Total Pages: 494
Release: 2020-02-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1680510371

Miles from Nowhere is the story of Barbara and Larry Savage’s sometimes dangerous, often zany, but ultimately rewarding 23,000-mile bicycle odyssey, which took them through 25 countries in two years. Along the way, these near-neophyte cyclists on their ten-speeds encountered warm-hearted strangers eager to share food and shelter, bicycle-hating drivers who ran them off the road, various wild animals (including an attack camel), rock-throwing Egyptians, overprotective Thai policeman, motherly New Zealanders, meteorological disasters, bodily indignities, and great personal joys. The stress of traveling together constantly tested yet strengthened the young couple's relationship and as their trip ends, you'll find yourself yearning for Barbara and Larry to jump back on their bikes and keep pedaling. Originally published in 1983, Miles from Nowhere has provided inspiration for legions of modern travel-adventurers and writers.

Greetings from Below

Greetings from Below
Author: David Philip Mullins
Publisher: Sarabande Books
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2010
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1932511881

Set in Vegas, these Mary McCarthy Prize-winning stories chronicle what becomes of a man contorted by grief and sexual regret.