The Night, and the Rain, and the River
A current of longing runs through twenty-two short stories by Oregon writers. As the characters strive for connection, they make mistakes, reach out to the wrong people, and recalibrate their lives based on what they desire, whether or not it’s attainable—or even a good idea. A shy pyromaniac takes a chance on love. A young woman hands her decisions to a man she’s never met. An abandoned father and son struggle to pull a stump from the stubborn ground, the town wailer loses her voice after her mother’s death, and a cloudless Oregon sky triggers a trip for a final goodbye. Editor Liz Prato has curated a powerful collection of smart, funny, sad, exquisite stories about the losses that shape our lives.
Contributors include Jan Baross, Gail Bartley, Victoria Blake, Alisha Churbe, Sage Cohen, Ellen Davidson Levine, Steve Denniston, Trevor Dodge, Gregg Kleiner, Christi Krug, Kathleen Lane, Dylan Lee, Margaret Malone, Matthew Robinson, Joanna Rose, Lois Rosen, Jackie Shannon Hollis, Domi Shoemaker, Scott Sparling, Tammy Lynne Stoner, Jennifer Williams, and Cindy Williams Gutierrez.
“I love this book like I love the ocean. The Night, and the Rain, and the River gets under your skin and travels your body from the first page. Each story brings you to the edge of your own heart, or life, or death, or gut grabbing laughter, and as the stories accumulate, you slowly realize you’ve been allowed into a world. These writers will mark you for life; remember their names. We are nothing without each other.” — Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Chronology of Water
“Like the varied and verdant landscape of the Pacific Northwest, the stories in The Night, and the Rain, and the River will make you gasp and grow your heart. Sweet cheating boyfriends, hopeful drunk drivers, angry little sisters, inept sincere fathers, even a lonely goose, all are portrayed with exuberant complexity in their quests for love. These stories offer up bright light in our often overcast skies.” — Natalie Serber, author of Shout Her Lovely Name
BOOK INFORMATION
TITLE: The Night, and the Rain, and the River: 22 Stories
EDITOR: Liz Prato
ILLUSTRATOR: Clare Carpenter
FORMAT: Paperback (6" x 9")
PAGES: 240
ISBN: 9780988265752
PRICE: $18.00
PUBLISHER: Forest Avenue Press
PUBLICATION DATE: April 9, 2014
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Liz Prato’s short stories and essays have appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Subtropics, The Rumpus, Iron Horse Literary Review, Hunger Mountain, Carve, and ZYZZYVA, among others. She was the Guest Prose Editor for the Summer 2013 issue of VoiceCatcher. Awards include the 2010 Minnetonka Review Editor’s Prize, first place in the 2005 Berkeley Fiction Review Sudden Fiction Contest, four Pushcart Prize nominations, and a scholarship to the 2012 Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She began teaching at the Attic Institute in 2008, and has taught creative writing for several literary organizations in Oregon.
Read the extended, web-only version of “In Which Liz Prato, the Writer, Interviews Liz Prato, the Editor.”
This anthology was funded in
part by a 2014 Oregon Literary
Arts Fellowship for publishing.
