'One of the most soulful writers in America, and a national treasure' George SaundersNineteen tales of growing up, wising up, and falling in love, spanning more than three decades of prize-winning work by a North American master of the short storyThe Start of Something is a visionary work following the lovelorn beatniks, hard-boiled gangsters and jaded academics of America, journeying through a haze of drugs, dreams and lucid memory. Seduc...

In Stuart Dybek's Chicago, wonder lurks in unexpected places—in garbage-strewn alleys, gloomy basement apartments, abandoned rooms at the top of rickety stairs periodically rumbled by passing el trains. Transformed through the wide eyes of Dybek's adolescent heroes, these grimy urban backwaters become exotic landscapes of fear-filled possibility, of dreams not yet turned to nightmares. Chronicling what happens when Old World faith meets the dark side of the American dream, Dybek's poignant...

In questa raccolta di racconti, diventata ormai un classico, Dybek trasforma l'impassibile atmosfera del paesaggio di Chicago in un mondo surreale e ultraterreno. La collezione di tappi di bottiglia di un bambino diventa la lapide di un cimitero. La morte inspiegabile di un modesto esterno destro lo rende improvvisamente un martire del baseball. Le melodie di Chopin che fluttuano lungo i pozzi di ventilazione di un caseggiato si trasformano in un misterioso inno alla perdita. Nella sua com...

A new collection of short stories with a common focus on the turmoils of romantic love from "not only our most relevant writer, but maybe our best" (Darin Strauss, The New York Times Book Review ).Operatically dramatic and intimately lyrical, grittily urban and impressionistically natural, the varied fictions in Paper Lantern all focus on the turmoil of love as only Dybek can portray it. An execution triggers the...

In a city like that one might sailthrough life led by a runaway hat.The young scattered in whatever directionstheir wild hair pointed and, gustinginto one another, they fell in love.--from "Windy City"In his second book of poems, Stuart Dybek finds extraordinary vitality in the same vibrant imagery that animates his celebrated works of fiction. A b...

The stolid landscape of Chicago turns dreamlike and otherworldly in these "miraculous tales . . . a collection for the ages" ( Kirkus ).A child's collection of bottle caps becomes the tombstones of a graveyard. A lowly rightfielder's inexplicable death turns him into a martyr to baseball. Strains of Chopin floating down the tenement airshaft are transformed into a mysterious anthem of loss.In these and other storie...

"All are gems; each glistens with Dybek's spare poetry; combined, they form a vibrant mosaic about a boy's coming of age . . . [An] A." ― Entertainment WeeklyA New York Times Notable BookA Washington Post Best Book of the YearA Chicago Tribune Best B...

In this remarkable collection of bite-size stories, Stuart Dybek, one of our most prodigious writers, explores the human appetite for rapture and for trust. With fervent intensity and sly wit, he gives each tale his signature mix of characters—some almost ghostly, others vividly real—who live in worlds tinged with surreal potential. There are crazed nuns hijacking streetcars, eerie adventures across frozen ponds, and a boy who is visited by a miniature bride and groom every night in his un...

A lot can happen on the way from one place to another, especially when an overnight flight makes for an unexpected romantic encounter between strangers seated together; a trucker finds life beyond the ranch where he grew up; and a bored Midwestern housewife tries to escape Kansas City.This anthology of tales about people in transit features Stuart Dybek's "Pet Milk", read by Keith Szarabajka; Martha Gellhorn's "Miami-New York", read by Joanna Gleason; Edward P. Jones' "An Orange Li...

The Spring 2025 Issue. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Since 1971, Ploughshares has discovered and cultivated the freshest voices in contemporary American literature, and now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares “the Triton among minnows.”The Spring 2025 Issue, edited by Peggy Schumaker, features poetry and prose by Naomi Shihab Nye, Felicia Zamora, Tim Seibl...

The Winter 2016-17 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year's three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles; the Winter issue is staff-edited.This staff edited issue of Ploughshares features a vibrant collection of essays, poems, and short stories. Whether it’s through poetry like Daniel Lawless’s poem “The Old Masters,” or short stories like Kat...