American Fiction

by Alan Davis (Editor), Michael C. White (Editor), Steven Featherstone (Contributor)

Short stories by emerging American authors.

Contents:
World history / Joyce Carol Oates --
Islands without names / Elizabeth Graver --
Strays / Nancy Reisman --
Feeding Mary E. / Dulcie Leimbach --
C'est La Vie / Jim Nichols --
Whiteouts / Michael Blaine --
Eagles / Sara Burnaby --
Fire next door / Steven Featherstone --
Something to say / Andrea Foege --
How all this started / Pete Fromm --
The girl and the woman / Elisa Jenkins --
The second marriage of Albert Li Wu / Zoe Keithley --
Losing touch / Cynthia Kennion --
Carpentry / William Luvaas --
Coyote comes calling / Linda Watanabe McFerrin --
Sybil and the soft red rock / Dara Anastasia Moskowitz --
I lift mine eyes / C. Dawn O'Dell --
The movement of stone / Liz Severn --
The riddle of flesh and blood / Rachel Simon --
Whir of satisfaction / Lara J.K. Wilson --
This time of night / Bonnie ZoBell.

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

About the author

Alan Davis's forthcoming novel-in-stories [Clouds Are the Mountains of the World] is "a compelling vision rendered in language, both surreal and chillingly familiar, that summons the apocalyptic dreams of Bruegel and Bosch." Lin Enger

Davis grew up in Zydeco Louisiana and now lives in Dylanesque Minnesota; he has published three prize-winning collections of short fiction (Rumors From the Lost World, Alone With the Owl, and So Bravely Vegetative) and co-edited Visiting Bob: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Bob Dylan and 10 editions of American Fiction: The Best Unpublished Short Stories by Emerging Writers. Professor emeritus at Minnesota State, he also taught at the University of North Carolina, Fairfield University's MFA Program, and the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast MFA Program. He is the recipient of a Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction in Creative Prose, a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, a Fulbright to Slovenia, and a Fulbright-Hays Grant to Indonesia.

Praise for previous books:

"Moving easily between blue-collar types and Social Register summer people, New Age dancers and Old World immigrants, underground poets and Elvis freaks, Davis demonstrates an impressive range in this collection." Kirkus Reviews

"Although these stories occur in many different parts of the country, they are aesthetically shaped by the landscape of Louisiana, the muddy delta, and the oily bayou - the bottomland to which all things flow." Debra Marquart

"I kept thinking that I wouldn't mind ending up as a character in one of his stories. Odds are, he'd do me justice." Dorothy Allison, The New York Times Book Review.

"A magical collection of stories, one of the best I've encountered in years. It's hard to convey my enthusiasm for this book - all the ordinary adjectives of praise seem trite and inadequate. But as personal testimony, I can say that I was tremendously moved and enlightened by each story, and that the collection as a whole lingers in my memory like a hometown - a place I once lived in and once loved." Tim O'Brien

"He has an original talent, a feel for action, a sparse yet vivid style, a sharp satirical sense, a keen eye and ear for the follies of the age." Walker Percy

"There is magic in a world that still somehow seems devoid of magic." Publishers Weekly

He's available for readings, workshops, craft lectures, virtual visits for book clubs, or editorial consultations.