The Surprising Place

A synchronized swimming coach pops pills during practice, a bagpiper cold-cocks a hawk, and an orphan puts her fist through a window, discovering in the engine noise of a jet passing overhead, the perfect witness to her inner pain. In this debut collection from prizewinning short story writer Malinda McCollum, people adrift in the American Midwest struggle to find their way in the world, with few signposts for guidance. Set largely in Des Moines, Iowa, over the expanse of several decades, these twelve stories explore the surprising places where our outsized longings may lead us. In prose as lean and unflinching as an Iowa winter, these stories offer confrontation and consolation in equal measure.

Author: Malinda McCollum
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
Published: 02/20/2018
Pages: 212
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.40w x 0.60d
ISBN13: 9781625343482
ISBN10: 1625343485
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Short Stories (single author)

About the Author
Malinda McCollum, a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, the Plimpton Prize for Fiction, and a Stegner Fellowship in Creative Writing. Her short stories have appeared in the Paris Review, McSweeney's, and Epoch, among other publications. McCollum currently teaches writing at the College of Charleston.

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