These stories from four decades are grounded in the geographical, cultural, and psychological American West. Ranging from realism to fables, from childhood to senescence, from a faltering rancher to the rich and rocky road of fatherhood, Woodswork is filled with indelible characters keenly rendered. This is not fast-food fiction but a nourishing feast.
Miles Wilson's short stories have been widely published, and his collection Line of Fall won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award. He is also the author of two other prize-winning books, Fire Season and Harm: Poems. Wilson is a distinguished professor emeritus at Texas State University, where he founded the MFA program.
"A compelling read."--Roundup
"This collection of mostly gut-wrenching stories is one of the best pieces of literature I have read in a long, long while. It should become a classic. . . . Comparisons might include . . . books by Cormac McCarthy, Richard Ford, Hemingway, Ray Carver, Norman Maclean, Larry Brown, William Kittredge's We Are Not in This Together and Owning It All, Jim Harrison's Legends of the Fall. And also Tom McGuane. But Miles Wilson has his own original voice and it's a doozy. I'm startled by how good this book is."--John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War
Facing the Forest Line of Fall The Lord of Misrule at Separation Creek Gospel Hump Fire Season
Family Tree Hanford Reach Tiller Flesh and Blood In the Palouse Christmas at the Dixie Motel
The Groves of Academe Blue Sky Blue On Tour with Max Wyoming
Bonsai Long Green Waterworks, Rim, and Angel Body HOA
Arboretum Field of Vision Everything The Persistence of Desire Hampton Station Tough Outrider