Talking of Michelangelo is a mesmerizing journey through the tangled lives of a brilliant but tormented lawyer, his fiercely intelligent wife, and an artist who shaped his past and believed you should not paint what you haven't experienced. Haunted by forbidden secrets and bound by a childhood vow, these characters' stories unfold in a dreamlike tapestry of art and memory-where legal briefs clash with vivid canvases, and the ghosts of war loom over every brushstroke.
With its mix of art, law, and war, Talking of Michelangelo masterfully interweaves ambition, loyalty, and the all-consuming power of creativity. Drawing you into a bitter sweet narrative tinged with secrecy, heartbreak, and the triumph of artistry over despair, this is an invitation you won't want to decline.
Liss is a multiple Pushcart Prize nominee, a nominee for the story South Million Writers Award. He was also a finalist for the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Prize sponsored by University of Georgia Press, the St. Lawrence Book Award sponsored by Black Lawrence Press, and the Bakeless Prize sponsored by Breadloaf Writers' Conference and Middlebury College. He has published or has forthcoming 65 short stories and has received numerous awards and other forms of recognition for individual short stories including The Florida Review Editor's Award for Fiction; James Still Prize for Short Fiction sponsored by Wind; Midnight Sun Award for Fiction sponsored by Permafrost; Third prize in the Arthur Edelstein Prize for Short Fiction; Finalist for the Raymond Carver Award for Short Fiction sponsored by Carve Magazine; and Honorable Mention in the New Letters Literary Award for Fiction and the Glimmer Train June, 2014 Fiction Open. Liss has also published in The Saturday Evening Post, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, The South Dakota Review, The South Carolina Review, Dogwood, The Worcester Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal. Both collections together with two novels will be published by Pierian Springs Press in 2025/2026. He earned a BA from Amherst College, Amherst, MA; a JD from Columbia University School of Law, New York, NY; and an MFA from Emerson College, Boston, MA. He was the recipient of a Grant-in-Aid in Literature from the St. Botolph Club Foundation, Boston, MA where he led a workshop in writing fiction for over 10 years.
