In early March, AWP was scheduled to run in San Antonio, Texas. AWP is an annual conference where about 12,000 writers, presses, editors, and instructors come together and share new writing, writing ideas, teaching ideas, and new books by small presses. Every year, AWP is set in a different city. This year, San Antonio was undergoing the emergency of the corona virus and while AWP still marched on, about half as many people participated as usual--if that.
The Whole World at Once (2017, West Virginia UP/Vandalia Press)
About: Set within a backdrop of small towns and hard-working communities in middle America, The Whole World at Once is a collection of intense stories about the experience of loss.
From Kirkus Reviews: “Readers willing to immerse themselves in sorrow, and sometimes in narratives that twist and shimmer before taking definite shape, will find reflected in these stories the unsteady path of coming back to life—or not—after loss.”
From The Wall Street Journal: You can feel that Ms. Pringle has labored over her sentences, giving them the strength of tempered steel. She has a knack for the cinematic image as well.
From Journal Gazette and Times Courier: "People who grew up in rural areas will feel an eerie sense of stories they've grown up hearing or stories they've lived, a sense that this could happen or has happened here, and yet the pervasive thread of grief opens these stories up to anyone."
The publisher of my second collection, The Whole World at Once, decided to stay home but offered a free PDF of the book to others who opted out of AWP.
As the pandemic expands its reach and those ordered to shelter-at-home, that offer still stands; while I don't think that a story a day will keep the Coronavirus at bay, I do find myself drawn to reading articles about the crisis, and that it isn't contributing positively to my attention span, mental health, or clarity about the world. Perhaps you find yourself in a similar position. If so, maybe a free PDF of strangely beautiful stories would serve you in your solitude, whether you're isolated at home or continuing to work due to economic pressures beyond your control.
- Free PDF here: https://wvupressonline.com/node/668
- If you'd rather buy the book to support your local bookstore, then you can order The Whole World at Once through your bookstore using IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781943665570
Either way of reading is appropriate.
The Whole World at Once (2017, West Virginia UP/Vandalia Press)About: Set within a backdrop of small towns and hard-working communities in middle America, The Whole World at Once is a collection of intense stories about the experience of loss.
From Kirkus Reviews: “Readers willing to immerse themselves in sorrow, and sometimes in narratives that twist and shimmer before taking definite shape, will find reflected in these stories the unsteady path of coming back to life—or not—after loss.”
From The Wall Street Journal: You can feel that Ms. Pringle has labored over her sentences, giving them the strength of tempered steel. She has a knack for the cinematic image as well.
From Journal Gazette and Times Courier: "People who grew up in rural areas will feel an eerie sense of stories they've grown up hearing or stories they've lived, a sense that this could happen or has happened here, and yet the pervasive thread of grief opens these stories up to anyone."
