A Short Fiction Anthology

Edited by 

Rayne Debski

342 pages, $15.95 cover price

ISBN: 978-1-59948-384-9

Released: 2012

CONTRIBUTORS

Rebeca Antoine
Rebeca Antoine has an MFA from the Creative Writing Workshop at the
University of New Orleans. Her fiction has appeared in The Briar Cliff
Review, Gulf Stream, Blithe House Quarterly, and other publications.
She is also the editor of the nonfiction anthologies Voices Rising:
Stories from the Katrina Narrative Project (vols. I and II):

John Azrak
John Azrak is the former chair of the English Department of Walt Whitman H.S. on Long Island. He was a finalist for Glimmer Train’s very short fiction award, and a finalist in The Sonora Review’s short-short fiction contest, judged by Steve Almond. He has poems in, among others, Bryant Review, Court Green, Poetry East,The Hawai’i Pacific Review, Paddlefish, The Santa Fe Review, The Santa Clara Review, Coe Review, Oyez Review, Eclipse and The Comstock Review. Short stories appear in the anthology Bless Me, Father(Penguin), The Alembic, Another Chicago Magazine, Passages North, West Branch, Natural Bridge, and The Artful Dodge.

Alex Baldwin
Alex Ron Baldwin, autochthonous to Idaho Falls, currently works in Logan, Utah as a personal trainer and fitness instructor for Utah State University. In May of 2011 he earned his Bachelor of Arts in English with a Creative Writing emphasis from USU where his poetry, fiction, and nonfiction received various awards like 2011 English Student of the Year and Creative Writing Student of the Year. His most recent poetry can be found inCatfish Creek, Out of Our, and Sheepshead Review. This is his first short story publication.

Michael Bigham
Michael Bigham was a police officer in Oregon and graduated from Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in Creative Writing. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, daughter and a puppy named Pumpkin.

Andrew Bourelle
Andrew Bourelle’s fiction has appeared in Jabberwock Review, Red Rock Review, Rosebud, and other publications. He lives in New Mexico with his wife Tiffany.

Kevin Brown
Kevin Brown has had Fiction, Non-fiction, and Poetry published in over 100 Literary Journals, Magazines, Anthologies, and Best Of… Anthologies. His two collections of short fiction, Ink On Wood and Death Roll, were published in the Fall of 2010 by Virgogray Press and Lame Goat Press, respectively. He has won numerous writing competitions and was the recipient of several fellowships. He was also nominated for the 2007 Journey Award and three Pushcart Prizes. He co-wrote the screenplay Living Dark: The Story of Ted the Caver, that was made into a film in 2006. Recently, he completed a short novel, Invisible Bodies, and a new collection of short fiction entitled Pulling Wisdom From My Teeth.

Glenn Cassidy
Glenn Cassidy is a consultant and educator based in Carrboro, NC. He has a Ph.D. in public policy analysis and has taught public policy and public finance at several universities including UNC Chapel Hill. His poetry and short fiction draw on his formal study of human behavior and often address public policy issues. Editors at The Main Street Rag, The Dead Mule School of Southern Poetry, Prime Number Magazine, Wild Goose Poetry Review, and other journals have been entertained enough to publish forty of his poems and short stories. Works of his have been chosen as runner-up for the Analecta elegy competition and semi-finalist for the Brenda L. Smart Fiction Prize.

Ed Davis, Yellow Springs, OH
West Virginia native Ed Davis recently retired from teaching writing full-time at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. He has also taught both fiction and poetry at the Antioch Writers’ Workshop and is the author of the novels I Was So Much Older Then (Disc-Us Books, 2001) and The Measure of Everything (Plain View Press, 2005); four poetry chapbooks, including, most recently, Healing Arts (Pudding House, 2005); and many published stories and poems in anthologies and journals. His unpublished novel Running from Mercy, loosely based on the life of Bob Dylan, won the 2010 Hackney Award for the novel. He lives with his wife in the village of Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he bikes, hikes, blogs and meditates religiously. Please visit him at www.davised.com.

Michael Giorgio
Michael Giorgio lives in Waukesha, Wisconsin, with his wife, author Kathie Giorgio, and their daughter, Olivia. After having audio dramas broadcast in markets from coast to coast, he turned his attention to prose fiction. His short stories have appeared internationally in magazines such as The Strand and Criminal Class Review and have been anthologized in The Mammoth Book of Tales from the Road, It’s That Time Again: The New Stories of Old Time Radio, Dark Things, Literary Foray, Who Died in Here? Twisted Cat Tales, Tales from the Cash Register, Dreamspell Revenge and many more. He has also published nonfiction and poetry. In addition to writing, Giorgio teaches at AllWriters’ Workplace and Workshop in Waukesha (www.allwriters.org) and for Writers’ Digest University.

Nicki Gill
Nicki Gill was born in Melbourne, Australia, where she practiced law, and dreamed of writing. She is a graduate of New York University’s creative writing program, and has taught at New York and Marymount Universities. This is her first publication.

Leah Griesmann
Leah Griesmann earned an MA in Creative Writing at Boston University and was a 2010-2011 Steinbeck Fellow in Fiction at San Jose State University. She has taught writing and literature at Boston University, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and San Jose State University. Her stories have appeared in Fourteen Hills, The Cortland Review, Litro Magazine, Union Station, Pif Magazine, and J Journal: New Writing on Justice.

Gina Hanson
Gina Hanson earned her MFA in Fiction Writing at California State University, San Bernardino. Other short stories of hers have appeared in The Ink-Filled Page, Red Clay Review, and ZYZZYVA. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She currently lives in Southern California with her spouse and a menagerie of poorly behaved animals.

Linda Lee Harper, Lake Murray, SC
Linda Lee Harper has two collections of poetry and seven chapbooks. Kiss Kiss was selected as Cleveland State University Poetry Center’s Open Competition winner. Two most recent chapbooks are Small Waves (Finishing Line Press, 2009) and Driving Out (Pudding House Publications, 2008). She has been the recipient of four Pushcart nominations, three fellowships at Yaddo, two at VCCA. Harper’s work has appeared in The Georgia Review, Nimrod, Beloit Poetry Journal, Southern Poetry Review, Rattle, Ascent, The Seneca Review, Crazyhorse,and Southern Humanities Review, where she won the Hoepfner Award for Best Poem of the Year. She’s served as faculty at USC-Aiken, the University of Pittsburgh, PA and regional writing conferences. Currently, she’s working on a novella-in-verse Little Sugar, and written the libretto for an opera collaboration with composer Richard Maltz, based on the Boston Red Sox. She divides her time between Augusta, GA and Lake Murray, SC.

Toby T. Hecht
Toby Tucker Hecht is a scientist and fiction writer from Bethesda, Maryland. Her previous publications include short stories in The MacGuffin, Epiphany, The Baltimore Review, Red Wheelbarrow, RE:AL, THEMA, and other print and online literary journals. When not writing, she can be found at the National Cancer Institute where she works in the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, or taking swing dance lessons with her husband.

G. Davies Jandrey
For many years G. Davies Jandrey taught in one of Tucson’s most diverse inner-city high schools. Daily she eavesdropped on the Spanglish spoken in the hallways. These overheard conversations and experiences with her Mexican National and Mexican American students and their families inform her writing. Her work has appeared in The Bi-Lingual Review, Calyx, Portland Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, and High Plains Literary Reviewamong others. Her first novel, A Garden of Aloes, was published by The Permanent Press in January 2008. Currently, she is working on a short story collection. “The Secret of Rain” is from that collection. Favorite quote: Some people wear clean cloths over dirty underwear.” — Eden Le Jardin , exotic dancer

Nick Ostdick
Nick Ostdick is a husband, runner, and writer who currently resides in Rockford, Illinois. He holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from Southern Illinois University and is the editor and co-editor of the forthcoming anthologiesHair Lit, Vol 1 (Orange Alert Press, 2012), and The Man Date: 15 Bromances (Prime Mincer, 2013). He’s the winner of the Viola Wendt Award for Fiction and has been nominated for a Puschart Prize, and his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Annalemma Quarterly, The Emerson Review, Fox Cry Review, Pindeldyboz, Night Train, and elsewhere.

Daniel Pearlman
Dan Pearlman’s fiction has appeared in magazines such as The Florida Review, Spectrum, New England Review,Quarterly West, The MacGuffin, and anthologies such as Semiotext(e), Synergy, Simulations, The Year’s Best Fantastic Fiction (1996), Going Postal (1998), Imaginings (Pocket Books, 2003), and XX Eccentric (MSR Pub. Co., 2009). He has published over fifty short stories and novellas, most of which have been collected in three volumes: THE FINAL DREAM & OTHER FICTIONS (Permeable, 1995); THE BEST-KNOWN MAN IN THE WORLD & OTHER MISFITS (Aardwolf, 2001); and A GIANT IN THE HOUSE & OTHER EXCESSES (Merry Blacksmith, 2011). His two novels to date are BLACK FLAMES (White Pine Press, 1997); and MEMINI(Prime/Wildside, 2003).

Maureen Pilkington

Maureen Pilkington just completed her collection, Float and Other Stories This Side of Water. Her fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Puerto del Sol, Confrontation, Orchid Literary Review, Santa Barbara Review, Bridge: Art & Literature, Red Rock Review, Pedestal, Stone Table Review, SN Review, Marco Polo Quarterly, Miranda, and numerous others. After working in book publishing, she received an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and is the founder of a writing program for New York City’s inner city students. She is currently working on a novel, Cry For Me, and lives in New York with her husband and two children.

Gary Powell, Lake Norman, NC
Gary V. Powell’s stories have appeared in The Briar Cliff Review, Amarillo Bay, moonShine Review, The Thomas Wolfe Review, and Dogzplot Flash Fiction. His story “Miller’s Deer” was runner-up for the 2008 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize. Recently, “Trinity’s,” received an Honorable Mention for the Winter 2010 New Millennium Fiction Prize and “Fast Trains” placed in the 2010 Rick Demarinis Fiction Contest. He has work forthcoming at Main Street Rag, The Newport Review, and The Blue Lake Review. He lives near the shores of Lake Norman with his beautiful wife and amazing son. He recently completed his first novel, Lucky Bastard.

Rosemary Solarez
Born in Tucson Az to Mexican-Lebanese parents, Rosemary Solarez is the consummate chola. Her family established one of the oldest and greatest Mexican restaurants in a city famous for great, old Mexican restaurants. She attended Catholic schools for 12 years, where, among other things, she learned the fear of hell. At her father’s command, she earned her bachelors degree at the University of Arizona. Later, as a single mom with two young sons, she volunteered at a local soup kitchen, where she became politically awakened. A born again Buddhist, Rosemary has spent a lifetime in social services. One of her tattoos reads: One people, one planet, one future. Currently, she works with the homeless at the Primavera Foundation of Tucson. Her favorite quote: “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” — Krishnamurti

John Struloeff
John Struloeff grew up in the mountainous rainforests of northwestern Oregon. His debut poetry collection, The Man I Was Supposed to Be, was published by Loom Press in 2008, with individual poems in The Atlantic Monthly, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, ZYZZYVA, PN Review, and elsewhere. His awards include a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, an NEA Literature Fellowship, a Sozopol Seminars Fiction Fellowship from the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation (Bulgaria), and both the Weldon Kees and Tennessee Williams Scholarships. He has taught at Stanford University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he received both his MA and PhD in English. Currently he directs the creative writing program at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.

Derek Tellier
Derek Tellier’s work has appeared in New Verse News, Ascent Aspirations, Pindeldyboz.com, The Pedestal Magazine.com, Poetry Motel, Blue Lit and Small Spiral Notebook.com. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato. He lives in the Twin Cities.

Katy Whittingham
Katy Whittingham has her MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College, Boston. A poet, fiction writer, and photographer, her work has been published in numerous journals and magazines with a collection, By a Different Ocean, published by Plan B Press, Virginia in 2009. She teaches first year composition, poetry, children’s literature, memoir and family narrative, and Creative Writing at Bridgewater State University and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Her other teaching and research interests include Irish American Studies, Children’s Literature, and the incorporation of poetry in the early childhood classroom.

Abi Wyatt
Abigail Wyatt lives and writes in the shadow of Carn Brea in Cornwall. Her poetry and her short and flash fiction have appeared in a range of publications. These include Words with JAM, One Million Stories, Poetic Diversity, Word Gumbo and Poetry Cornwall. Her poetry collection, Moths in a Jar (Palores, £4.00) became available in November, 2010 and she is now in the process of compiling a collection of a dozen or so short stories. Abigail is the founder member of the group Redruth Writers which meets at The Melting Pot Cafe, The Old Grammar School, Redruth. She is a keen amateur performer and appears with two drama groups. Contact via abigailwyatt.blogspot.com.

About the Editor

Rayne Debski, Boiling Springs, PA
Born in New Jersey, Rayne Debski has lived in Florida and Virginia. She holds degrees from Rider University and Florida Atlantic University, and has been an innkeeper, college instructor, editor, and organizational development manager. She now lives and writes in central Pennsylvania, where she shares her life with her husband and their enthusiastic yellow lab. Her award-winning short fiction has appeared in several online and print journals and anthologies, including Main Street Rag’s short fiction anthology XX Eccentric. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and has been selected for dramatic readings by professional theatre groups in New York and Philadelphia. Between hiking, cycling, and kayaking adventures, she continues to work on a collection of linked short stories. She usually brings her fictional characters with her wherever she goes and hopes they’ll continue to share their secrets.

When you step onto an escalator at a shopping mall, somewhere in your subconscious you know certain things are going to happen. You will pass static displays of merchandise, inhale the scent of indoor tropical plants, and reach a particular floor untroubled by your ride on the moving stairs. Forget about certainties when you read the stories in this volume. The escalator might suddenly stop, causing your heart to lurch because the person behind you is someone you haven’t seen since a disaster twenty-five years before. Or the stairs might change direction, carrying you back to a time of such family strife you lost your voice. There is the possibility that nothing will move, that you will be stuck where you are with people you’ve harmed by your good intentions. Or the railing you’re gripping will slip away when your father appears on the opposite staircase holding the charms you’ve stolen for his ritual to avenge you.

The theme of this volume is secrets, those things that are intentionally withheld, not widely known, or not understood. But the stories are about more than that. They are about ordinary events—a bus ride, a walk to the cinema, a business conference—where people are unexpectedly forced to confront experiences and relationships they thought were buried. They are about what happens when men and women hold back truths not only from one another, but from themselves. They are about children and adults so desperate to maintain a pretense, they don’t recognize the dangerous truths others keep hidden.

The people in these stories ride the errant escalator until they come to what George Oppen so beautifully describes in his poem, “Image of the Engine”:

There hovers in that moment, wraith-like and like a plume of steam, an aftermath,
A still and quiet angel of knowledge and of comprehension.

Step onto the escalator. Enjoy the ride.

—Rayne Debski, Editor