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Annie Proulx Stories: New and Selected
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25 copies available
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From one of the greatest story writers of our time, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, two O. Henry Prizes, and the celebrated author of Brokeback Mountain, comes a collection that includes three new stories and the most iconic stories of Annie Proulx’s stunning, decades-long career.
Annie Proulx’s “gritty and gleaming stories” (New York Times Book Review) are about loneliness, violence, desperation, and the wrong kinds of love. In “The Mud Below,” a rodeo rider’s obsession marks the deepening fissures between his family life and self-imposed isolation. In “The Half-Skinned Steer,” an elderly fool drives west to the range he grew up on for his brother’s funeral and dies a mile from home. In the masterpiece, “Brokeback Mountain,” the difficult affair between two cowboys survives everything but the world’s intolerance.
These are stories of hard times, and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both brutal and magnificent. Enlivened by folk talks, flights of fancy, and details of ranch and rural work, they juxtapose Wyoming’s traditional character and attitudes—confrontation of tough problems, prejudice, persistence in the face of difficulty—with the more benign values of the new west.
Annie Proulx’s “gritty and gleaming stories” (New York Times Book Review) are about loneliness, violence, desperation, and the wrong kinds of love. In “The Mud Below,” a rodeo rider’s obsession marks the deepening fissures between his family life and self-imposed isolation. In “The Half-Skinned Steer,” an elderly fool drives west to the range he grew up on for his brother’s funeral and dies a mile from home. In the masterpiece, “Brokeback Mountain,” the difficult affair between two cowboys survives everything but the world’s intolerance.
These are stories of hard times, and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both brutal and magnificent. Enlivened by folk talks, flights of fancy, and details of ranch and rural work, they juxtapose Wyoming’s traditional character and attitudes—confrontation of tough problems, prejudice, persistence in the face of difficulty—with the more benign values of the new west.
432 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication November 10, 2026
About the author
Annie Proulx
114 books3,609 followersEdna Annie Proulx (Chinese:安妮 普鲁) is an American journalist and author. Her second novel, The Shipping News (1993), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for fiction in 1994. Her short story "Brokeback Mountain" was adapted as an Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award-winning major motion picture released in 2005. Brokeback Mountain received massive critical acclaim and went on to be nominated for a leading eight Academy Awards, winning three of them. (However, the movie did not win Best Picture, a situation with which Proulx made public her disappointment.) She won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her first novel, Postcards.
She has written most of her stories and books simply as Annie Proulx, but has also used the names E. Annie Proulx and E.A. Proulx.
She has written most of her stories and books simply as Annie Proulx, but has also used the names E. Annie Proulx and E.A. Proulx.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
This collection contains both new and older stories like Brokeback Mountain. The book just reminds you how talented a writer the author has been consistently over time.
September 19, 2026
My thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for an eARC of this title, to be published November 10, 2026.
Proulx really is one of our living masters of the short story.
This is her personal selection of her best from each of the volumes she has published in the past - about 3 stories from each collection. And then adds on to it 3 newer stories that have not been published in book format previously.
Those three stories are not her best, but IMHO, any Proulx is worth reading. As a resident of WY, I was disappointed that none of them were set in the West/Rockies. All three are about couples who probably should never have married - but they go way beyond that. I had forgotten how much Proulx can fit into one story! Or the amount of research she does (volcanoes and fabric in just the last story). OTOH, the twist at the end of one story is no surprise.
At close to 440 pages, a good collection of her work, if you do not have the individual collections already.
4 out of 5.
Proulx really is one of our living masters of the short story.
This is her personal selection of her best from each of the volumes she has published in the past - about 3 stories from each collection. And then adds on to it 3 newer stories that have not been published in book format previously.
Those three stories are not her best, but IMHO, any Proulx is worth reading. As a resident of WY, I was disappointed that none of them were set in the West/Rockies. All three are about couples who probably should never have married - but they go way beyond that. I had forgotten how much Proulx can fit into one story! Or the amount of research she does (volcanoes and fabric in just the last story). OTOH, the twist at the end of one story is no surprise.
At close to 440 pages, a good collection of her work, if you do not have the individual collections already.
4 out of 5.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The only work I have read by Annie Proulx is The Shipping News back when it first came out. I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain, but I was interested in reading the short story and I figured that getting a broader view of Proulx's work would be interesting reading. I am thrilled to have gotten a chance to read several of her short stories, which are gritty and beautiful and often funny. This collection of both old and new stories is a wonderful reading experience that I really enjoyed. I highly recommend this collection to any reader who enjoys wonderfully crafted literary fiction. The book contains nineteen stories, which is a good number of entries for a collection and a great deal!
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews