Three for the Road

by Molly Giles

“The road,” Kerouac wrote, “is life,” and the women in these three stories hit the road looking for a fuller, richer life than the ones they have at home. One flies to Ireland to land a husband; one, who hoped to find shelter in paradise, realizes her journey isn’t over; and one loses a lover, a friend, and a few precious illusions about herself as she drives across America.

Molly Giles has published two award-winning collections of short stories (Rough Translations and Creek Walk), a novel (Iron Shoes), and a chapbook of flash fiction (Bothered). Her third story collection, All the Wrong Places, recently won the Spokane Prize and is forthcoming from Willow Springs Press. She has taught fiction writing at San Francisco State University and the University of Arkansas.

Previous awards include the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award for Short Fiction, the Small Press Award for Short Fiction, the California Commonwealth Silver Medal for Fiction, the Split Oak Press Award for Flash Fiction, two Pushcart Prizes, two Arkansas Arts Grants, and an NEA.

This is a short e-book published by Shebooks--high quality fiction, memoir, and journalism for women, by women. For more information, visit

40 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 20, 2014

About the author

Molly Giles’ newest collection of short stories, Wife With Knife, recently won the Leap Frog Fiction Contest and will be published in October of 2021. She has published four previous prize winning collections of stories: Rough Translations, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Boston Globe Award, and the the Bay Area Book Reviewers’ Award; Creek Walk, which won the Small Press Best Fiction Award, the California Commonwealth Silver Medal for Fiction, and was a New York Times Notable Book; Bothered, which won the Split Oak Press Flash Fiction Award and All the Wrong Places, which won the Spokane Prize for Fiction. She has also published a novel, Iron Shoes, and an ebook of stories, Three for the Road. Her work has been included in numerous anthologies including the O.Henry and Pushcart Prize (twice) and she has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Marin Arts Council, and the Arkansas Arts Council.

Molly has taught fiction writing at San Francisco State University, University of Hawaii in Manoa, San Jose State University, the National University of Ireland at Galway, the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and at numerous writing conferences, including The Community of Writers and Naropa. She has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Book Reviewing, been awarded residences at MacDowell, Yadoo, and The House of Literature in Paros, Greece, and has edited many published writers, including Amy Tan.

Reviews

[Beatrice Followill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable short stories,Three woman, lively personality each has story to tell .Rather its a vacation to find love, a lost love or road trip, each story was enlightening.

[R.L. Maizes · Rating 5 out of 5]

These three gems were my introduction to Molly Giles. What a treat!

[Macy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Depressing stories about depressed people. Most of the characters were incredibly awful and unlikable. Their storylines even more so.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard her on KQED Forum last week and was impressed by the way she spoke about writing and the short story as a writing form. I picked up this book last night, and it the feel of something that's local and not widely-read (not sure how else to articulate that), but it's good. Definitely very good short stories.