Anthologies

The annual tribute to the short fiction form is especially strong for 1994 with a new generation of voices, including Christopher Tilghman, Thom Jones, and Carol Anshaw, with impressive debuts by Lan Samantha Chang and Carolyn Ferrell. Simultaneous.

The twenty best American novelists under forty, chosen by Robert Stone, Anne Tyler, Tobias Wolff, and Ian Jack.

In an intriguing collection of essays, eighteen distinguished American writers examine diverse aspects of the human body and its meaning, in works by Jane Smiley, Lynda Barry, Esmeralda Santiago, Mona Simpson, Thomas Lynch, Kyoko Mori, Rosario Ferre, Michael Knight, and others.

What would you write if no one knew who you were? In the spirit of the demolition derby, where drivers take heedless risks with reckless abandon, welcome to the first convocation of the Secret Society of Demolition Writers. Here is a one-of-a-kind collection by famous authors writing anonymously–and dangerously. With the usual concerns about reputations and renown cast aside, these twelve daredevils have each contributed an extreme, no-holds-barred unsigned story, each shining as brightly and urgently as hazard lights. Unconventional and unapologetic , this publishing equivalent of a whodunit features an eclectic group of fictional characters, including a delusional schizophrenic narrator, an egg donor with second thoughts about her decision, a pharmacist who forms a weird crush on a woman who beat both of her parents to death, and a little girl who understands that an old safe is the threshold to another, ghostly, world. Equally diverse and surprising are the authors themselves: Aimee Bender, Benjamin Cheever, Michael Connelly, Sebastian Junger, Elizabeth McCracken, Rosie O’Donnell, Chris Offutt, Anna Quindlen, John Burnham Schwartz, Alice Sebold, Lauren Slater, and Marc Parent , the editor of the collection. Never before has such a wide-ranging and talented group of authors been assembled to such explosive and entertaining effect. The Secret Society of Demolition Writers is an intriguing puzzle in itself, but it’s also an important addition to the careers of some of our finest storytellers–even if we never really know who wrote what. Its boundary-smashing fiction offers exhilarating proof that for an artist, withholding your identity can mean gaining your freedom.

Featuring work by Michelle Webster-Hein, Brian Doyle, Mark Liebenow, Jesse Bordoni, Chris Offutt, Daniel W. Lehman, Beth Peterson, Debie Thomas, Helen Wallace, Bettye Kearse, Aaron Poor, Katie Fallon, and Seth Sawyers, and an interview with Chris Offutt. From the editor's notes... In the keynote address of the second annual River Teeth Nonfiction Conference, Scott Russell Sanders encouraged the audience of over eighty to write about where they are. “Your place probably needs your art,” he said, adding, “We only take care of what we love.” With those words, Sanders launched the writers in the audience into a weekend of nurturing their craft through panels on research, reflection, reporting, shaping narrative, and more, so that we might all be better equipped and inspired to write about the things and places we love. There was a joyful and welcoming spirit that penetrated the entire weekend, from the generosity of over a dozen presenters, to the community of writers sharing their projects over turkey sandwiches and chocolate layer cake, to the availability and willingness to serve exhibited in the undergraduate interns. The weekend was a success; as one participant put it, “The generous nature of the faculty members is this conference’s great strength. They take the teaching and manuscript consultations seriously. They eat meals with the students and go out of their way to ask about the students’ work, progress, and questions. They genuinely care. I hope they realize how important (and rare) this is.” We are grateful for our friends and colleagues who embrace and embody this spirit of generosity, and for the writers who came to Ashland for a full weekend to participate in this nonfiction writer party. Next year’s conference will take place May 30 through June 1 and will feature Philip Gerard and Brenda Miller along with a dozen or so other presenters. Keep watch on the website and social media for updates. We might be a smidgen biased, but yeah, we think it’s the best show in town. River Teeth had much to celebrate this spring leading up to the conference. Two essays from Volume 13, Number 2, were selected for reprint in Best American Essays 2013 by guest editor Cheryl Strayed. Jon Kerstetter’s “Triage” and Steven Harvey’s “The Book of Knowledge” will both appear in the anthology due out this fall. We’re particularly proud of these two essayists, who share River Teeth’s roots at Ashland University: Jon Kerstetter is an alumnus of the low-residency MFA program at Ashland, and Steven Harvey is one of our founding faculty members in the same program. Andre Dubus III’s essay, “Writing and Publishing a Memoir: What in the Hell Have I Done?” from Volume 14, Number 1, won a Pushcart Prize and will be reprinted in Pushcart Prize XXXVIII: Best of the Small Presses. River Teeth will celebrate its fifteenth anniversary with a reading this spring at the AWP Conference in Seattle. With all of this good news, we should also share that the River Teeth Book Prize is taking a one-year hiatus while we look for a new home for the series. Now, hurry on into this issue of River Teeth. Thanks as always for sharing with us your river teeth . . . - SMW

Featuring Work By: Dickey Betts, Sherman Alexie, Willy Vlautin, Vicki Hendricks, Chris Hedges, Chris Offutt, Jason Isbell, Daniel Woodrell, Patrick Michael Finn, Joseph D. Haske, Steven Huff, Eric Miles Williamson, Ron Cooper, Esther G. Belin, Michael Gills, Larry Fondation and Mark Turcotte Stray Dogs is a collection of writers, poets and songwriters who write about the America that does not exist in the glossy magazines, the Hollywood blockbuster or the corporate novel. These are highway songs and gutter poems, whiskey-soaked and sun scorched stories for the forgotten and lost. This is the other side of the electric American night.

In Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean, Adrian Blevins and Karen Salyer McElmurray collect essays from today’s finest established and emerging writers with roots in Appalachia. Together, these essays take the theme of silencing in Appalachian culture, whether the details of that theme revolve around faith, class, work, or family legacies. In essays that take wide-ranging forms—making this an ideal volume for creative nonfiction classes—contributors write about families left behind, hard-earned educations, selves transformed, identities chosen, and risks taken. They consider the courage required for the inheritances they carry. Toughness and generosity alike characterize works by Dorothy Allison, bell hooks, Silas House, and others. These writers travel far away from the boundaries of a traditional Appalachia, and then circle back—always—to the mountains that made each of them the distinctive thinking and feeling people they ultimately became. The essays in Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean are an individual and collective act of courage. Contributors: Dorothy Allison, Rob Amberg, Pinckney Benedict, Kathryn Stripling Byer, Sheldon Lee Compton, Michael Croley, Richard Currey, Joyce Dyer, Sarah Einstein, Connie May Fowler, RJ Gibson, Mary Crockett Hill, bell hooks, Silas House, Jason Howard, David Huddle, Tennessee Jones, Lisa Lewis, Jeff Mann, Chris Offutt, Ann Pancake, Jayne Anne Phillips, Melissa Range, Carter Sickels, Aaron Smith, Jane Springer, Ida Stewart, Jacinda Townsend, Jessie van Eerden, Julia Watts, Charles Dodd White, and Crystal Wilkinson.

In turbulent times, what we need is possibility, and in this rich gathering of diverse voices, Watts and Smith give us just that. A girl molds clay against her deaf brother’s ears to heal him. A gay man finds his Appalachian clan in a dark world. These are stories and essays about the blues, about poverty, about families lost and made. Unbroken Circle is about broken and unbroken lives, and ultimately, hope. ―Karen Salyer McElmurray, author of Surrendered Child..................... One of the goals of Unbroken Circle is to subvert stereotypes―to show that Southern people are not simply shoeless, rural white people. We are a people as varied as the Southern landscape, from the mountains of Appalachia to the deltas of Mississippi to the skyscrapers of Atlanta. We are black, white, Latino, Native American, Middle Eastern, Asian, and multiracial. We are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, atheist and agnostic. We are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, straight, and questioning. We are urban and rural, old and young, poor and rich, and all points in between. We are all these things, plus more that don’t fit into neat categories. The voices in this collection represent some of the diverse voices of our region, just a few spoonfuls from the giant pot of gumbo that makes up our region. ―Julia Watts (Introduction)

Thirty-six major contemporary writers examine life in a deeply divided America—including Anthony Doerr, Ann Patchett, Roxane Gay, Rebecca Solnit, Hector Tobar, Joyce Carol Oates, Edwidge Danticat, Richard Russo, Eula Bliss, Karen Russell, and many more America is broken. You don’t need a fistful of statistics to know this. Visit any city, and evidence of our shattered social compact will present itself. From Appalachia to the Rust Belt and down to rural Texas, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest stretches to unimaginable chasms. Whether the cause of this inequality is systemic injustice, the entrenchment of racism in our culture, the long war on drugs, or immigration policies, it endangers not only the American Dream but our very lives. In Tales of Two Americas , some of the literary world’s most exciting writers look beyond numbers and wages to convey what it feels like to live in this divided nation. Their extraordinarily powerful stories, essays, and poems demonstrate how boundaries break down when experiences are shared, and that in sharing our stories we can help to alleviate a suffering that touches so many people.

From editors David Joy and Eric Rickstad comes Gather at the River , an anthology of twenty-five remarkable essays on fishing from an ensemble of contemporary authors. Their experiences explore the ways we come to water, for renewal and reverie, or to simply stand waist-deep in a river and watch the trout rise. Gather at The River is more than a collection of big fish stories; it&;s Ron Rash writing about the Appalachia of his youth and C.J. Box revealing the river where he wants his ashes spread. It&;s Natalie Baszile on a frogging expedition in the Louisiana Bayou and a teenaged Jill McCorkle facing new realities of adulthood on Holden Beach, North Carolina. This is an anthology about friendship, family, love and loss, and everything in between, because as Henry David Thoreau wrote, &;it is not really the fish they are after.&; The contributors are an eclectic mix of critically acclaimed writers including New York Times Bestselling Authors Ron Rash, Jill McCorkle, Leigh Ann Henion, Eric Rickstad, M.O. Walsh, and #1 Bestseller C.J. Box. Some of the proceeds of every sale will benefit C.A.S.T. for Kids, public charity that joins volunteers who love to fish with children who have special needs and disadvantages for a day of fishing in the outdoors.