Things To Do When You're Goth In The Country: And Other Stories

Author: Chavisa Woods

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $39.99 AUD
  • : 9781609807450
  • : Seven Stories Press
  • : Seven Stories Press
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  • : 0.364
  • : April 2017
  • : 218mm X 148mm
  • : United States
  • : 39.99
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  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Chavisa Woods
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  • : Hardback
  • :
  • :
  • : English
  • : 224
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Barcode 9781609807450
9781609807450

Description

The 8 stories in Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country bring the underbelly of America into vivid focus. The strange and unique characters in this collection include a zombie who secretly resides in a local cemetery; a queer teen goth who is facing ostracism from her small-town evangelical church; a Brooklyn artist who learns more about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict than he ever wanted to; and the UFOs that trouble a group of friends in the rural Midwest.

Reviews

"In the tradition of Shirley Jackson, William Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor, Woods's third full-length work, Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country, explores the haunted terrain of the American psyche . . . Woods embraces the complex humanity of her characters even as she explores the tragedy of enculturation, identifying forces that divide us. Think of her as a literary exorcist, calling out certain entities that possess rural America: isolation, working-class poverty, drugs, incarceration, military dogma, and evangelical religion." --The Rumpus "This fiery collection of fiction does justice to coming up in the time of Osama Bin Laden's capture. Woods latest startles and sings. The eight stories vary in tone and in clip, but not will soon be forgotten. A transgender artist in Brooklyn wakes up one morning to find that a living diorama of the Gaza Strip has appeared on his head. Two twelve-year-old girls take care of a sweet, playful meth addict who has been living in a local mausoleum. A young woman and her schizophrenic girlfriend drop acid at a MENSA party thrown by the schizophrenic woman's parents. Woods' writing is deep and dynamic. Her characters are complex and never sink into the ease of generalizations. She spares no experience in her representation of modern America; it is a rare work of literary fiction that fully showcases the rich and diverse American populace. The stories establish instant, distinct voices, much like Roxane Gay's recent Difficult Women (2016), and fans of Miranda July's fiction will relish the wily creativity of Woods' plots. This book is tight, intelligent, and important, and sure to secure Woods a seat on the pantheon of critical 21st-century voices." --Booklist, Starred review "I can't think of any other book that captures the essence of America the way this collection does--it is nuanced and provocative, heartfelt and funny and wise. Of it, Booklist says, ..".tight, intelligent, and important, and sure to secure Woods a seat in the pantheon of critical twenty-first-century voices" and I couldn't agree more." --Lambda Literary "Set at the irresistible junction of toxic reality and the truly strange, the electric unexplainable, Chavisa Woods stirs up stories of drugs and dykes, mutant mohawks, the Gaza Strip and green glowing orbs. Here, the outsider becomes truly alien. Murakami meets the meth heads. Woods delivers a nation of cigarettes in language both lyric and thrilling. Reader, you have never before seen anything like this." --Samantha Hunt, author of Mr. Splitfoot "Chavisa Woods's Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country is part Flannery O'Connor, part Kelly Link: darkly funny and brilliantly human, urgently fantastical and implacably realistic. This is one of the best short story collections I've read in years, and it should be required reading for anyone who's trying to understand America in 2017." --Paul La Farge, author of The Night Ocean "This fiery collection of fiction does justice to coming up in the time of Osama Bin Laden's capture. Woods latest startles and sings. The eight stories vary in tone and in clip, but not will soon be forgotten. A transgender artist in Brooklyn wakes up one morning to find that a living diorama of the Gaza Strip has appeared on his head. Two twelve-year-old girls take care of a sweet, playful meth addict who has been living in a local mausoleum. A young woman and her schizophrenic girlfriend drop acid at a MENSA party thrown by the schizophrenic woman's parents. Woods' writing is deep and dynamic. Her characters are complex and never sink into the ease of generalizations. She spares no experience in her representation of modern America; it is a rare work of literary fiction that fully showcases the rich and diverse American populace. The stories establish instant, distinct voices, much like Roxane Gay's recent Difficult Women (2016), and fans of Miranda July's fiction will relish the wily creativity of Woods' plots. This book is tight, intelligent, and important, and sure to secure Woods a seat on the pantheon of critical 21st-century voices." --Booklist, Starred review "I can't think of any other book that captures the essence of America the way this collection does--it is nuanced and provocative, heartfelt and funny and wise. Of it, Booklist says, ..".tight, intelligent, and important, and sure to secure Woods a seat in the pantheon of critical twenty-first-century voices" and I couldn't agree more." --Lambda Literary "Set at the irresistible junction of toxic reality and the truly strange, the electric unexplainable, Chavisa Woods stirs up stories of drugs and dykes, mutant mohawks, the Gaza Strip and green glowing orbs. Here, the outsider becomes truly alien. Murakami meets the meth heads. Woods delivers a nation of cigarettes in language both lyric and thrilling. Reader, you have never before seen anything like this." --Samantha Hunt, author of Mr. Splitfoot "Chavisa Woods's Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country is part Flannery O'Connor, part Kelly Link: darkly funny and brilliantly human, urgently fantastical and implacably realistic. This is one of the best short story collections I've read in years, and it should be required reading for anyone who's trying to understand America in 2017." --Paul La Farge, author of The Night Ocean -This fiery collection of fiction does justice to coming up in the time of Osama Bin Laden's capture. Woods latest' (The Albino Album, 2013) startles and sings. The eight stories vary in tone and in clip, but not will soon be forgotten. A transgender artist in Brooklyn wakes up one morning to find that a living diorama of the Gaza Strip has appeared on his head. Two twelve-year-old girls take care of a sweet, playful meth addict who has been living in a local mausoleum. A young woman and her schizophrenic girlfriend drop acid at a MENSA party thrown by the schizophrenic woman's parents. Woods' writing is deep and dynamic. Her characters are complex and never sink into the ease of generalizations. She spares no experience in her representation of modern America; it is a rare work of literary fiction that fully showcases the rich and diverse American populace. The stories establish instant, distinct voices, much like Roxane Gay's recent Difficult Women (2016), and fans of Miranda July's fiction will relish the wily creativity of Woods' plots. This book is tight, intelligent, and important, and sure to secure Woods a seat on the pantheon of critical 21st-century voices.- --Booklist, Starred review -Set at the irresistible junction of toxic reality and the truly strange, the electric unexplainable, Chavisa Woods stirs up stories of drugs and dykes, mutant mohawks, the Gaza Strip and green glowing orbs. Here, the outsider becomes truly alien. Murakami meets the meth heads. Woods delivers a nation of cigarettes in language both lyric and thrilling. Reader, you have never before seen anything like this.- --Samantha Hunt, author of Mr. Splitfoot -Chavisa Woods's Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country is part Flannery O'Connor, part Kelly Link: darkly funny and brilliantly human, urgently fantastical and implacably realistic. This is one of the best short story collections I've read in years, and it should be required reading for anyone who's trying to understand America in 2017.- --Paul La Farge, author of The Night Ocean -Set at the irresistible junction of toxic reality and the truly strange, the electric unexplainable, Chavisa Woods stirs up stories of drugs and dykes, mutant mohawks, the Gaza Strip and green glowing orbs. Here, the outsider becomes truly alien. Murakami meets the meth heads. Woods delivers a nation of cigarettes in language both lyric and thrilling. Reader, you have never before seen anything like this.- --Samantha Hunt, author of Mr. Splitfoot -Chavisa Woods's Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country is part Flannery O'Connor, part Kelly Link: darkly funny and brilliantly human, urgently fantastical and implacably realistic. This is one of the best short story collections I've read in years, and it should be required reading for anyone who's trying to understand America in 2017.- --Paul La Farge, author of The Night Ocean "Set at the irresistible junction of toxic reality and the truly strange, the electric unexplainable, Chavisa Woods stirs up stories of drugs and dykes, mutant mohawks, the Gaza Strip and green glowing orbs. Here, the outsider becomes truly alien. Murakami meets the meth heads. Woods delivers a nation of cigarettes in language both lyric and thrilling. Reader, you have never before seen anything like this." --Samantha Hunt, author of Mr. Splitfoot "Chavisa Woods's Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country is part Flannery O'Connor, part Kelly Link: darkly funny and brilliantly human, urgently fantastical and implacably realistic. This is one of the best short story collections I've read in years, and it should be required reading for anyone who's trying to understand America in 2017." --Paul La Farge, author of The Night Ocean

Author description

Brooklyn based writer CHAVISA WOODS is the author ofaThe Albino Album(Seven Stories Press, 2013) andaLove Does Not Make Me Gentle or Kinda(Fly by Night Press, 2009). Woods was the recipient of the 2014 Cobalt Prize for fiction and was a finalist in 2009 and 2014 for the Lambda Literary Award for fiction. Woods has appeared as a featured author at such notable venues as the Whitney Museum of American Art, City Lights Bookstore, Town Hall Seattle, the Brecht Forum, the Cervantes Institute, and St. Mark's Poetry Project.