Emma Smith-Stevens – författare

“What a seductive voice; what a smart and charming book! And, most of all, what a wonderful new writer we have in Emma Smith-Stevens.”—Lauren Groff, author of Fates and FuriesA young man known as "the Australian" journeys between New York and Melbourne on a quest of self-discovery in this poignant exploration of loneliness, love, and fatherhood In her humorous and emotionally resonant debut, Emma Smith-Stevens follows the exploits and evolution of a young man––known only as “the Australian”––over the course of a dozen years, from his time posing for tourist photos as Superman to his life in New York, chasing fame and fortune. Married to a woman he barely knows and struggling to forge a relationship with his son, the Australian travels between the US and Melbourne, seeking to reconnect with his deceased parents through his father’s Australian Outdoor Geographic magazines and the Dreaming Tracks, sacred landmarks his mother longed to explore.Through this quest for self-discovery, the Australian becomes both more and less enigma: “the idea of this guy you could find in any city, a hostel anywhere in the world, smiling, suntanned, hauling a backpack.” A poignant and at times satirical meditation on masculinity, fatherhood, isolation, New York City, fame, and loss, The Australian examines the human tendency to fall in love with the idea of another person and the importance of knowing one’s essential nature.

Poignant and humorous, Greyhounds follows characters desperately navigating desire, obsession, and the minefields of power dynamics in relationships of all stripesA couple buys a Betta fish in the hopes it will salvage their drowning marriage. A young girl, envious of her friend's terminal illness, begins fabricating symptoms of her own.  Months after a fatal collision, a husband and wife begin driving incessantly, haunted by the memory of the teenage boy they killed. And while her widowed neighbor watches, a woman who has long struggled with hoarding finds her life forever changed when she begins acquiring greyhounds.Unflinching and audacious, Smith-Stevens's debut short story collection compels readers to reckon with themselves through an unlikely cast of characters that somehow feel eerily—and intimately—familiar. A treasure for fans of Carmen Maria Machado and Marie-Helene Bertino.