Engine Running: Essays

Runner Up, 2021 Gournay Prize

Engine Running explores debut author Cade Mason's gradual distancing from home and old selves alongside an increasingly fractured family doing the same. Starting at the beginning of his parents' love and working past its end, he combs through memory to piece together a portrait of a family then and now: of a father, reeling after a blindsiding divorce; of a mother, anxious to move on; of a sister, caught in the crossfire; and of a son, learning to embrace his sexuality even as he fears that his own loves may have deepened the rift between his parents.

Lush and innovative, these essays contemplate childhood memories and family secrets, religion and queerness in the rural South, and the ways rituals and contours of manhood are passed through generations. Most of all, we feel with Mason what it is to grapple with and love a place even as you yearn to leave.


Author: Cade Mason
Publisher: Mad Creek Books
Published: 12/05/2022
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.44d
ISBN13: 9780814258507
ISBN10: 0814258506
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Collections | Essays
- Literary Collections | LGBTQ+
- Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs

About the Author
Cade Mason holds an MA in English and Creative Writing from the University of North Texas, where he has also taught. His work has appeared in Hotel Amerika, DIAGRAM, Ninth Letter, and Literary Hub. Engine Running is his first book.

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