Barn 8

Deb Olin Unferth is the author of six books, most recently Barn 8, which is her UK debut. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and Creative Capital, has won three Pushcart Prizes, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. An associate professor at the University of Texas in Austin, she also teaches creative writing at a prison in southern Texas.

Praise for Wait Till you See me Dance One of The Brooklyn Rail's Best Books of 2017One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Short Fiction of 2017One of Electric Literature's 15 Best Short Story Collections of 2017One of Largehearted Boy's Favorite Short Story Collections of 2017‘This assemblage of down-and-out moments is delivered with a wit and concision reminiscent of Lydia Davis and Diane Williams, a wry intelligence and keen irony that don’t prevent Unferth’s prose from offering deep emotional intimacy . . . Again and again in these pages, Unferth swerves from the mundane to the extraordinary, from biting to soaringly celebratory, often in a single sentence.’ The New York Times Book Review‘One of the most important voices in fiction’s long-awaited collection of short fiction is a fascinating must-read.’ Newsweek‘[Unferth’s] absurd and tender story collection is full of sentences like clear glass doors, and you, reader, are the bird . . . The way she writes [her characters] is reminiscent of the unsentimental, often absurd, compassion of George Saunders . . . The multiplicity of feeling is wonderful; it’s like she’s swirling all these different colours of paint together but stops while it’s all still just thinly marbled together.’ NPR‘No one can resist Unferth’s masterful distortion of the American dream with a set of unforgettable mistake-makers who aren’t quite past redemption.’ Courtney Maum, CNN Travel