In 1919, Sherwood Anderson published his landmark short story cycle Winesburg, Ohio. Its stories centered on the residents of the titular, fictionalized town, revealing their hopes, fears, and dreams. In effect, it told a much larger tale about small-town life in America. Such localized, themed story compilations have become relatively rare in the traditional publishing world, but they’re still alive and well in the self-publishing sphere.
Havelock Free Press by Tim Schulz, for example, also tells the story of a small town but uses that framework to explore a wide range of genres and styles, from suspense (as in “Terror in the Heartland,” in which an elderly couple confronts armed invaders) to sci-fi (as in the time-travel tale “Gone Fishing”). Kirkus’ reviewer called the book “by turns wry, heartwarming and richly dramatic.”
Ron Parsons’ The Sense of Touch—which Kirkus, in a starred review, called “a touching, effective collection”—offers tales set in Minnesota and South Dakota. However, its wide range of characters gives lie to the idea that Midwesterners are all alike. They include a Bangladeshi college student, a farmer’s wife, and a Texas transplant, all yearning for different kinds of escape.
Sometimes the unifying theme isn’t a region but a highly personal, man-made place. Mark Lyons’ Brief Eulogies at Roadside Shrines takes the titular idea of descansos as its jumping-off point, and its stories tell of people creating literal and figurative markers in their lives—such as a preacher erecting a cross out of parts of wrecked cars or a border patrolman helping an undocumented immigrant erect a memorial to his recently perished loved ones. Kirkus’ starred review praised it as an “engrossing collection giving ordinary people their due.” —D.R.
David Rapp is an Indie editor.
