The Agriculture Hall of Fame

by Andrew Malan Milward

These powerful stories limn the complexities and dilemmas of life in Kansas, a state at the center of the center of America, as a billboard in one story announces. Andrew Malan Milward explores the less visible aspects of the Kansas experience where its agrarian past comes into conflict with the harsh present reality of drugs, fundamentalism, and corporatism, relegating its agrarian identity to museums and amusement parks.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2012

About the author

Andrew Malan Milward was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and raised in Lawrence, Kansas. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he is the author of two short story collections, The Agriculture Hall of Fame and I Was a Revolutionary. His fiction has appeared in many venues, including Zoetrope, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Southern Review, Guernica, and Best New American Voices and has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award. He is an assistant professor of English at the University of Kentucky. -- https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006...

Reviews

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Milward's Juniper Prize-winning collection, The Agriculture Hall of Fame, is an excellent debut from a Midwest writer to watch.

All of the stories in this collection take place in Kansas, and among the many great things this collection does, it also shines a powerful literary light on Kansas as a valuable and fertile "place" in fiction.

For a complete review, see my blog: http://thestoryisthecure.blogspot.com/

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

the realness and palpability of the characters in this collection are what drew me in.

"the cure for cancer" is particularly heartbreaking and just so spot on. it's narrated by a man in his late 20s dealing with his older sister's cancer. milward beautifully imbues the sadness of death with humor. if you pick this up for that story alone, you won't regret it.

[Deborah Flomenhoft · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gutting. The language is precise, that characters’ voices are true to each of them. The plots unfold naturally and are never contrived.

[colin ainsworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

tender, sweet, deserves the world

[Chr*s Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's my moral obligation to read the work (or at least some of the work) of any new hire to the English Department at the old U of Kentucky, and since Milward seems to be the new fiction professor, that brings me here. I'm pleasantly surprised by his first collection - while he may lack a distinct voice, his stories are all solid and the writing is tight. I can't help but think that some of these would hit harder if I were from Kansas (where all take place), but it is clear that Milward deeply knows the place and people he is writing about - there's no sense that this is fictional tourism in a region with which the author is inexperienced. "John," "The Antichrist Chronicles," and "The Cure For Cancer" are all 4 star stories for me; the rest bring the grade ever so slightly down. Regardless, a strong debut collection that leaves me very interested in what I Was A Revolutionary has to offer.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

gritty, and keeping the reader unbalanced, this debut collection is all about south central kansas. no really. so we get insight into the changing landscape and people, from family farms to corporate farms and prisons being the main employers. sounds a bit ussr no? well, welcome to the great red. "the cure for cancer" is an excellent excellent story and worth grabbing the book. so lots of pickups, fuckups, and dust here, with humans trying to connect in a world not made for them anymore.
ps and there really is and agriculture hall of fame, AND a space travel park.

[Kita · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of short stories about Kansas.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of the stories in the collection caught my interest, but for the most part not a compelling set.

[Joel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Andrew Malan Milward does a disservice to his own strong prose by being such a downer. He tries to use his fatalism to set his writing apart, but it ends up being repetitive and sadly predictable.