Contents
Preface
Jonathan Allison
Introduction
George Saunders
A Note to the Reader about This Reader
Bobbie Ann Mason
I. First Stories
Offerings
Shiloh
Third Monday
II. War
FROM In Country
An Appreciation of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried
Big Bertha Stories
III. Love Lives
Love Life
Coyotes
Bumblebees
IV. Beginnings
FROM The Girl Sleuth
Reaching the Stars: My Life as a Fifties Groupie
Reading Between the Lines
FROM Elvis Presley
V. Family History
The Family Farm, FROM Clear Springs
The Pond, FROM Clear Springs
VI. Nancy Culpepper
Nancy Culpepper
The Prelude
VII. More Love Lives
Memphis
Midnight Magic
Wish
VIII. Whimsy
La Bamba Hot Line
Sheep Down Under
Hot Colors
Sanctuary
All Shook Up
Hear My Song
Terms of Office
IX. Fiction and History
FROM Feather Crowns
X. Literary Meanderings
The Universe of Ada
Introduction to Mark Twain’s The American Claimant, 2004 edition 298
XI. Atomic Fact and Fiction
Fallout
FROM An Atomic Romance
XII. Zigzagging
With Jazz
Charger
XIII. Another War
FROM The Girl in the Blue Beret
The Real Girl in the Blue Beret
XIV. Zanies
Whale Love
with Meg Pokrass
Talking through Hats
with Meg Pokrass
XV. Dancing
Quinceañera
The Horsehair Ball Gown
XVI. Flash Fiction
Corn-Dog
The Canyon Where the Coyotes Live
Car Wash
Cumberbatch
The Girl in Purple
The State Pen
Falling
XVII. The Hot Seat: Interviews
BOMB magazine, 1989
Missouri Review, 1997
Transatlantica, 2015
2paragraphs.com
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About the Author