New Stories from the Midwest

Jason Lee Brown teaches writing at Eastern Illinois University and is a contributing editor to River Styx. He has received awards from the Illinois Arts Council, Academy of American Poets, and Illinois Press Association.Jay Prefontaine taught writing at Eastern Illinois University for fourteen years, and his fiction received several awards, including the Writers at Work Fellowship. He died shortly after the completion of New Stories from the Midwest.

"This collection of nineteen writers illustrates less a sense of the Midwest than daring developments of plot and character, which illustrate contemporary realities…. Mostly the masterly writing stands out…. (T)his whole collection is outstanding and showcases some of the talent coming from the Midwest." (NewPages) "I wonder why The New Yorker isn't finding more stories like these, putting them in their obligatory fiction section there just before the dance and movie and TV reviews." (The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy, and the Humanities) "Because the editors have taken the high ground of admitting (almost!) only the best recent work by writers with Midwest ties, we can readily affirm this volume's high quality. It includes wonderful stories of high merit." (NewCity) "The nineteen writers in this anthology have … spoken for their distinct groups — their submerged populations — in stories that will delight you with their artistry, challenge you with their circumstances, entertain you with their charms, and above all, give you a sense of how complicated, flawed, ugly, and exquisite we all can be." "As this fresh anthology proves, there's a mix of writers and sensibilities that inhabit the literary Midwest as to make the term unpredictable."