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International tax lawyer Luis Villalobos is lured to the tiny island of Curaçao by the promise of a fast track to the cusp of an already stellar career. But the paradise we expect is so rarely the paradise we find.''The Miracle of Small Things'' is a novel in stories, a portrait of the power of place in our definition of self.Author Guilie Castillo Oriard is a Mexican import herself who transferred to Curaçao “for six months”—and, twelve years and a magical story of love later, is still there.

Matt Potter’s writing possesses a delicate snark, an incisive wit that lifts even the commonplace into unique memorability. The characters have the makings of great fictional people: they’re singular and quirky, but at the same time possessed of an indisputable sense of reality. These people exist, they live and breathe, and we the readers, recognize in them our friends, our family. And ourselves.~ Guilie Castillo Oriard, author of ''The Miracle of Small Things''The small fictions in ''Based on True Stories'' will not lull you – they will piss you off or, at the least, move you to indignation or tears or laughter. Maybe all three. These gems provoke, like the tip of a chef’s knife pricking skin, and just as the words get uncomfortable, the story delivers the bit of redemption that reveals the humanity of his characters – and of us all. These stories are real, raw, and honest. The reading doesn’t get much better than that.~ Linda Simoni-Wastila, Senior Fiction Editor at ''JMWW''

Beautifully rendered, the stories in ''Rain Check'' could well be the footprints and photographs of our own lives if we’d have taken risks as daring as Noe’s characters. Each misstep, triumph and regret rings true. Reading these stories is like being a lucky voyeur who happens upon an artist with brush in hand, nearing the finishing touch of their masterpiece. Nothing is more potent than prose that lifts off the page and lands, like a well-placed bullet or caress, on the heart, and that’s precisely what Noe has done here.~ Len Kuntz, author of ''Dark Sunshine'' and ''I’m Not Supposed to be Here and Neither Are You''The tiny, potent stories that make up this debut by Levi Andrew Noe both surprise and delight. There’s wisdom in these pages, but also humor, tenderness, and magic. ''Rain Check'' is a terrific read from a young author to watch.~ Kathy Fish, author of ''Wild Life'', ''Rift'' and ''Together We Can Bury It''

“Something quite wonderful happens when you allow yourself to drift through life without a plan of direction,” writes Jack Buck in his poignant debut story collection. The writing in ''Deer Michigan'' takes this philosophy to heart, embracing the flux of fate in over fifty ethereal narratives. In one story we meet an exiled Mao on a hiking trail, in another the narrator mourns the graceful disappearance of birds. Buck’s stories ripple with nostalgia, a reverence for the natural world and an America with room in which to wander. Though the stories in ''Deer Michigan'' are short—in one case spun out in a single sentence—they bottle up an expanse of human experience, offering us a stunning universe of feeling. ~ Allegra Hyde, author of ''Of This New World''