Winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction, A Bright Soothing Noise by Peter Brown is a captivating collection of short stories with the “scenic intensity and quality of Tennessee Williams’ one-act plays” (Josip Novakovich, best-selling author). Always on the verge of something better, Brown’s characters are often hard drinking and fast driving—tending to be both violent and religious. And as they grasp for hope, they sometimes make a leap into a new life.