Send Me Work: Stories - Softcover

Karlin, Katherine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810152207 ISBN 13: 9780810152205

Publisher: TriQuarterly, 2011

Synopsis

Winner, 2011 Balcones Fiction Prize

Unlike the heroines of domestic fiction, Katherine Karlin's women face their biggest challenges outside of the house. The characters in this debut collection encompass a broad range of contemporary American experiences: a struggling young woman in post-Katrina New Orleans persuades a welder to teach her his trade; an orchestra oboist hears a confession from a beloved teacher; an idealistic aerobics instructor decamps for revolution- era Nicaragua to pick coffee on a farming collective.

In each of these stories, Karlin offers rare insight into the place of work in the lives of women, her narrators keenly observant and attuned to the humor that arises when life doesn't turn out as planned. But even more remarkable is the fullness with which she renders characters who make us wonder how they've escaped the notice of other writers. In unadorned prose that evokes complete worlds with deceptive ease, Karlin shows us people immersed in the negotiations of survival, just at the edge of being able to make sense of their lives.

About this title

About the Author:

Katherine Karlin is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing in the Department of English at Kansas State University. In addition to publishing stories in various journals, her work has been anthologized inThe Pushcart Prize and New Stories from the South.

Review:

"Clear-eyed and rough without being raw, this bracing debut story collection is enlivened by an effective mix of bodily warmth and mechanical grit. . . These stories are a miracle of pacing, hitting the short story sweet spot time and again and ending exactly when they should. . . Karlin deserves serious attention." - Publishers Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: TriQuarterly
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0810152207
• ISBN 13: 9780810152205
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 170