A Thousand Distant Radios

by Woody Skinner

Painting modern America in saturated colors, this collection of short stories explores the passions and compulsions at the core of our national identity: those qualities that propel us forward or hold us back; that make us strangers to ourselves and others even while we pine for connection; the ways we cope with the inescapable enormity of our nation's geography. A marlin swims circles in a luminous backyard pool; a small-town surgeon broods from the Olympus of his hilltop house, watched all the while by his neighbors below; a knife salesman plies blades of mythic sharpness while crisscrossing a crazed North American landscape like a mad Paul Bunyan; a young man in rural Arkansas nestles into a satellite dish; and a grandfather’s body lies in state amid Annie Oakley’s last buffalo kill, General Patton’s Persian rug, and countless other oddments of a legendary America. Phenomenally imaginative, skewed, and hyperbolical, these stories are honed to cut through the blur of our times.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 24, 2017

About the author

Woody Skinner’s debut short story collection, A Thousand Distant Radios, was longlisted for the 2018 PEN/Bingham Prize. His stories have won the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award and appeared in Mid-American Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Hobart, Booth, Another Chicago Magazine, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from Wichita State University and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati. Originally from Batesville, Arkansas, he currently lives in Illinois.

Reviews

[Richard Noggle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another story collection with a few clear four-star winners for me. I love the opening family tale, with story segments centered around the movements of a satellite dish, and I LOVE "The Knife Salesman," which seems to drift the furthest into Flannery O'Connor territory (as most Southern writers are going to do at some point). But in other stories I'm not sure the realistic elements always merge completely smoothly with the more absurd elements, though Skinner is very good at small moments where you suddenly realize the story you're reading is a whole lot weirder than you first imagined.

[Scott Foley · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you haven't heard of Woody Skinner, I suggest you familiarize yourself with him. He's a Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award winner whose work has appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, Booth, The Carolina Quarterly, Mid-American Review, and more.

I recently had the pleasure of making Skinner's acquaintance. After hearing his backstory and learning about his writing journey and successes, I felt inspired to read his short story collection called A Thousand Distant Radios.

The collection includes stories about an ill-fated marlin dumped into an extravagant couple's backyard pool, a charismatic knife salesman traveling through a fanatical North American landscape, a young man in rural Arkansas who nestles into a satellite dish, and a grandfather's body surrounded by oddments of a legendary Americana. Each story is singularly imaginative, portraying characters who are both unique and familiar, while focusing upon the disparate existences within "America."

Put simply: I loved it.

I loved it because the book is extremely well written. Skinner obviously has a fantastic grasp of structure, word choice, pacing, and character. However, many "literary" authors tout these same skills. I loved it for an entirely different reason.

What sets Skinner apart from his literary peers is the sheer quirkiness of his stories. They zig every single time you think they are going to zag. Dare I say it, they're frankly a little weird, which is in all honestly very high praise. I'll heap one more compliment upon the previous: A Thousand Distant Radios comes within a a hair's breath of being genre writing.

Let me name a few other literary authors who flirt dangerously with genre: Annie Proulx, Michael Chabon, Paul Auster, Tobias Wolff, and Raymond Carver. Oh, by the way, these are also some of my favorite writers. As I read A Thousand Distant Radios, I couldn't help but feel that Skinner fits perfectly into this group of luminaries.

Woody Skinner is a relatively young writer with many, many years of excellence ahead of him. I cannot wait to read more of his work. Purchase your copy of A Thousand Distant Radios at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

[Guy Choate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I prefer reading nonfiction and when I can't, I prefer reading realistic fiction, but Skinner's collection of stories won me over with its absurdities. By the time I reached the end of the book, I craved the absurdity that I knew would eventually come. His characters were just quirky enough to not only believe, but love, and I rooted for them to fit into society in the way they seemed to want to, but just couldn't. Skinner subtly gives his characters the kind of vulnerability that makes you feel like you know them far better than what reading these stories should allow. That's a mark of a great writer.

[Ben Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a whole, this is a strong collection of stories with interesting and captivating absurdist themes and well written characters. Though I almost wish I could rate all of the stories individually. The one story I just really didn’t think belonged in this collection was ‘Even the Trees Were Sweating’ or are the very least, should not have been that close the end of the book itself. The story felt like filler and seemed to carry no real message, providing almost a disappointing end to the book.

[Jason Arias · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to hear Woody Skinner read an excerpt for his story "The Knife Salesman" (from this book) and knew I had to buy this collection. The ten stories in A Thousand Distant Radios are beautifully crafted meditations on the exceptional, mundane, and obscure ways in which we are unbearably human. It is a book that I will continue to return to.

[Candi Sary · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It sounded like the static of a thousand distant radios, like stories and sounds refusing to take shape.” This book is strange and wonderful and beautifully written. I was so immersed in Skinner’s characters, even those in the shortest of his stories. I’m hoping he writes a novel next.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really strong debut story collection...even the more absurdist/hyperbolic stories--despite not being my aesthetic--kept my attention. Skinner can really write. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received A Thousand Distant Radios as part of the giveaway program. It's a collection of short stories. Each one surprised me as the endings were not as I anticipated. Definitely different.

[William Jojo]

Honestly, the first few chapters were wonderful. After awhile, however, it simply did not hold my interest any longer after about 60 pages.

[Matthew Grolemund · Rating 5 out of 5]

A strong debut collection I found myself enjoying the whole way through. These stories often draw you in through an absurdist premise or idea, but it's Skinner's ability to write strong, memorable sentences and develop fascinating characters who surprise the reader as well as themselves that makes each story stand out and resonate long after you've finished. "The Knife Salesman", "Summering" and "The Pond Robber" were probably my favorites, but all the stories here develop their own unique tension and end up hitting their mark in the end.