Winner of the 2010 Leapfrog Fiction Contest.

“Excellent and lively. A sharp wit, the apt metaphor, the turn of phrase that pleases and surprises.”—Marge Piercy, contest judge

“Bright, brassy, spunky, intelligent. Ingenious writing. … Quirky and filled with metaphoric twists that often startle.”—Michael Mirolla, contest judge

“Smart, funny, biting, and, above all, touching. A collection to savor over and over.”—Michael White, author of Beautiful Assassin

Praise for Joan Connor's previous collections:

“Brilliantly quirky wit and wordplay.”—Syndey Lea, author of A Little Wilderness

“A deeply talented writer.”—Alyce Miller, author of Water

“Candor, bracing wit, and skewering insight that could kill if she let it.”—Rosellen Brown, author of Half a Heart

Joan Connor's collection investigates love and loss, sex, family, and the ways they echo back through memory, sometimes to comfort and sometimes to bite. Some comic, some dark, the stories range from lyrical to laugh-out-loud funny. The title story is a mock self-help manual on how to fall out of love. “Men in Brown” is a rollicking account of a woman infatuated with her UPS man. “Aground” is a dark account of male lust and violence on a lonely island in Maine.

Joan Connor is a professor at Ohio University and at Fairfield University's low residency MFA program. She received the AWP award for her collection History Lessons, and the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize for The World Before Mirrors. Her two earlier collections are We Who Live Apart and Here on Old Route 7.

Joan Connor

Books