Dzanc Books and its imprints have published many compelling debut short-story collections in the last year or two: Kyle Minor’s In the Devil’s Territory, Michael Czyzniejewski’s Elephants in Our Bedroom, and Allison Amend’s Things That Pass for Love, just to name three. To this growing and impressive list, add one more: Misfits and Other Heroes by Suzanne Burns.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Suzanne Burns has previously published two collections of poetry: Blight and The Flesh Procession. Her writing has been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes and she is the recipient of two poetry fellowships. She is a freelance editor who is currently working on a new novel.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
“This is no ordinary collection. In Misfits and Other Heroes Burns writes of disproportion, excess, reinvention, and lack as a means of magnifying outward physical irregularities to better reveal the inner irregularities of her characters. Burns is unafraid to explore the dark territory of human heart where love and hate are twins for desire and dread. The many brilliant moments of character, language, and startling observations indicate Burns is a keen observer of the wretched and wonderful human creature. In Burns’ capable hands the grotesque becomes achingly familiar: the misfits she writes about are us.”
—Gina Oschner, author of People I Wanted to Be
“Suzanne Burns’s “heroes” in Misfits and Other Heroes may at first seem just the other side of real, but in their obsessions with food and love and their stories’ perfectly odd specificity, they’re as real and credible as Americans can be, whether they’re a tiny husband carried around in a bird cage by his wife or a woman who prefers to eat glass rather than dumplings or a couple attached to a dollhouse. Who would have thought that Oregon’s misfits could be as deluded and cruel as Flannery O’Connor’s Southerners and even more bizarre?”
—Tom Whalen, author of Winter Coat
WHERE TO BUY:
Your local independent bookstore
The publisher, Dzanc Books
Powell’s [buy new, even if used is available]
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
