Synopsis
"Jeff Fearnside's is a welcome new voice. His short fiction is sharply drawn, often poignant, and always surprising."--Mary Clearman Blew, author of This Is Not the Ivy League
The 13 short stories in Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air are linked thematically by the recurring idea of flight, in its various definitions and senses. The characters are sometimes in flight from their situations, sometimes from other people, sometimes from themselves.
Stories range from contemporary to historical, from realistic to magical realist. The known and the unknown often blur as the characters struggle to understand the unseen forces that move them. Ultimately, the crises that all the characters encounter are psychological or spiritual in some way, however each may define that; as the title of the collection suggests, the characters find themselves levitating somewhere between their deepest desires and an exquisite and terrifying nothingness.
No one in these stories "wins" in the traditional sense; there are no tidy answers. But the stories are subtly life affirming in how each character deals with the difficulties of life. Each learns something about himself or herself, however fleeting that knowledge may be, however small a step forward it inspires. Life isn't static, and neither are these people.
"Fearnside's prose is succulent with sensory detail. Through the lens of his characters' lives, he offers a keen awareness of history and human experience in all its spiritual, emotional, and physical complexity."--Lisa Norris, author of Women Who Sleep with Animals
"Fearnside's characters exhibit a quiet dignity rarely encountered in life or on the page. As a reader, I appreciate the breathing room."--Ayun Halliday, author of No Touch Monkey!
"Each and every story in Jeff Fearnside's debut collection is a new exploration into human need, depravity, tenderness, and ineptitude, a combination that Fearnside employs with the skill of a master.... It feels more like a tenth book than a first, this wise writer so in tune with humanness, it's clear he's been doing it, living it, his entire life."--Mike Czyzniejewski, author of I Will Love You for the Rest of My Life: Breakup Stories
If you enjoyed For a Little While by Rick Bass, The Shell Collector by Anthony Doerr, and Verge by Lidia Yuknavitch, then you'll want to check out the stories in Jeff Fearnside's Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air.
About the Author
JEFF FEARNSIDE's writing has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including The Paris Review, Los Angeles Review, Story, The Pinch, and Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet (Press 53). Awards for his writing include a Grand Prize in the Santa Fe Writers Project's Literary Awards Program, the Mary Mackey Short Story Prize, and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission. His work has been nominated for Best New American Voices, The Best Small Fictions, and three times for a Pushcart Prize. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he is at work on various writing projects.
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