The Famous Thing About Death: And Other Stories

by Lisa Sandlin

"These are wonderful stories--passionate, fierce, reckless, and scrupulously written... Sandlin's characters are flawed and broken people, but their stories are not a lament. They're about the power to create beauty and healing from loneliness and pain."--Rick DeMarinis

Genres: Short Stories

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1991

About the author

Lisa Sandlin was born in the Gulf Coast oil town of Beaumont, Texas, and lived there before and after a transfer sent her family to Naples, Italy, for three years. She graduated from Rice University in Houston and then lived many years in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Once she had earned an M.F.A. in Writing at Vermont College, Sandlin packed a small car and headed for Nebraska in January. She taught at Wayne State College 1997-2009, with semester leaves to teach at The University of Texas and Kadir Has University in Istanbul, Turkey, and at University of Nebraska Omaha 2009-2018. Her books are "The Famous Thing About Death" (Cinco Puntos Press, 1991); "Message to the Nurse of Dreams" (Cinco Puntos Press, 1997), winner of the Violet Crown Award from the Austin Writers League and the Jesse H. Jones Award from the Texas Institute of Letters; "In the River Province" (Southern Methodist University Press, 2004), a finalist for the Jones award; "You Who Make the Sky Bend," (Pinyon Publishing), a collaboration with New Mexican retablo artist Catherine Ferguson, NM Book Award. Lately she has written two noir mysteries from Cinco Puntos Press: "The Do-Right" (2015), winner of the Shamus Award and the Hammett Prize, and "The Bird Boys" (2019). She is a professor emeritus of the Writer's Workshop at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.