“Truth Is the Arrow, Mercy Is the Bow is one of the best books on writing I’ve ever read. It’s also the funniest by a country mile.” —Richard Russo, author of the North Bath trilogyThe long-awaited craft book from Steve Almond, based on three decades of writing, failing, and trying again.In Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow, Steve Almond shares the insights gleaned from three decades as a beloved teacher and me...

How does Steve Almond get himself into so much trouble? Could it be his incessant moralizing? His generally poor posture? The fact that he was raised by a pack of wolves? Frankly, we haven’t got a clue. What we do know is that Almond has a knack for converting his dustups into essays that are both funny and furious. In (Not that You Asked), he squares off against Sean Hannity on national TV, nearly gets arrested for stealing “Sta-Hard” gel from his local pharmacy, and winds up in ...

In Against Football, Steve Almond details why, after forty years as a fan, he can no longer watch the game he still loves. Using a synthesis of memoir, reportage, and cultural critique, Almond asks a series of provocative questions:Does our addiction to football foster a tolerance for violence, greed, racism, and homophobia?What does it mean that our society has transmuted the intuitive physical joys of childhood—run, leap, throw, tackle...

Drooling fanatic, n. 1. One who drools in the presence of beloved rock stars. 2. Any of a genus of rock-and-roll wannabes/geeks who walk around with songs constantly ringing in their ears, own more than 3,000 albums, and fall in love with at least one record per week.With a life that’s spanned the phonographic era and the digital age, Steve Almond lives to Rawk. Like you, he’s secretly longed to live the life of a rock star, complete with insane talent, famous friends, and hotel ro...

The long-awaited craft book from Steve Almond, based on three decades of writing, failing, and trying again.In Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow, Steve Almond shares the insights gleaned from three decades as a beloved teacher and mentor, and a considerably less-beloved literary rabble rouser. His tone is irreverent. His ideas are iconoclastic. And his approach is stubbornly, radically, empathic. The goal is to explode the well-meaning but misguided myt...

**“A breathtaking success . . . dazzling.” ―San Francisco Chronicle“[A] rollicking, wide-ranging, unpredictable novel―part crime story, part coming-of-age, part satire, part deadly serious.” ―Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer finalist for The Great BelieversWho pays for the secrets we keep? For the lies we tell ourselves?**Lorena Saenz has just been paired with Jenny Stallworth for a school project by a teacher hoping to unite two girls from starkly differe...

"This is gonzo food writing at its best. Candyfreak is like a good candy bar: a piece of delicious, ephemeral fun." — San Francisco ChronicleDo you remember Caravelles, Choco-Lites, Oompahs, and Marathons? Or how about Cookies n' Mints or Kit Kat Darks?Steve Almond does, but many of these candies can't be found anymore, and Almond wanted to know why. Where'd they go? When Almond embarked...

Now a major motion picture starring Lucy Hale and Nat Wolff.A pair of romantic flameouts meet at a dull wedding and wind up entwined in a deserted coatroom. Shockingly, Jane and John decide not to have sex.Instead, they embark on a far more dangerous endeavor: sharing the stories of their past love affairs. They tell each other everything, aiming for radical honesty over polished seduction. Jaded as they may be, these two sense that they just might be soulm...

" Almond draws on everything from The Grapes of Wrath to the voting practices of his babysitter to dismantle the false narratives about American democracy ." —Cheryl Strayed, international-bestselling author of WildLike a lot of Americans, Steve Almond spent the weeks after the 2016 election lying awake, in a state of dread and bewilderment. The problem wasn't just the election, ...

Steve Almond, the man whose candy jones fueled the bestseller Candyfreak, returns with a collection of stories that both seals his reputation as a master of the modern form and risks getting him arrested. The cast of characters in The Evil B.B. Chow and Other Stories includes a wealthy family certain they have been abducted by space aliens, a sexy magazine editor who falls for a worldclass cad, and a beleaguered dentist who refuses to read his best friend's novel. Michael...

Stoner is a 1965 novel by the American writer John Williams. It tells the story of William Stoner, who attends the state university to study agronomy, but instead falls in love with English literature and becomes an academic. The novel narrates the many disappointments and struggles in Stoner's academic and personal life, including his estrangement from his wife and daughter, set against the backdrop of the first half of the twentieth century.In his entry in the Bookmarked series, ...

From the New York Times–bestselling author and Dear Sugars columnist, an arousing story collection exploring modern love in the age of hook-up culture.Steve Almond's My Life in Heavy Metal presents twelve passion-fueled stories—including his Pushcart Prize-winning story "The Pass"—that take a clear-eyed view of relationships between young men and women who have come of age in an era without innocence. These are powerful and resonant stori...