Pushcart Prize of XXXlX: Best of the Small Presses
This year’s Pushcart Prize anthology is the best I’ve ever read. I was nominated for one, but no cigar. The fiction is glorious. Some of my favorites are: Madame Bovary’s Greyhound by Karen Russell (subject obvious) La Pulchra Nota by Molly McNett, a bizarre tale of a music teacher in a miserable marriage who falls in love with his young student in the year of our Lord, 1370. I guess I’m showing a penchant for historical fiction. Annie Radcliff‘s You Are Loved is about a college instructor whose life is ruined by a family tragedy house-sitting for folks who now own the house where the tragedy occurred, and to amp it up, a boy who is stalking the teenage girl who lives there is at large. As if it isn’t hard enough to tell as story at all, McNett interlocks the story with Kierkegaard’s philosophy. Blue by Russell Banks, is the heartbreaking story of a black woman who has saved up to buy a used car and manages to get trapped in the dealership’s lot after hours under the watch of a pit bull. This year’s collection is so strong that I’m going to keep it around to reread! Probably soon.
February 11, 2015 @ 8:59 am
Many cigars come next time around.
April 26, 2015 @ 12:40 am
Thanks always for your responses. Love, Rochelle.
February 11, 2015 @ 11:21 am
Congratulations on being nominated. The Pushcart Prize anthology sounds like something I will want to read.