Bound Together 2023: Fiction: Story Collections
Anytime is a good time to grab one of these titles for a quick—and very satisfying—read.
HOW TO DATE A FLYING MEXICAN, By Daniel A. Olivas
UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA PRESS • FEBRUARY 2022 • 224 PAGES • $22 PAPERBACK
Magic and mysticism dance through each of Daniel A. Olivas’s stories, which showcase Mexican culture in all its complexity. Some are set in Los Angeles, some in Mexico, some are contemporary, and some take place far back in history. In one, we’re introduced to a meditating man who can levitate, while in others, we are confronted with surrealist or dystopian takes on the anti-immigration policies of the previous presidential administration of the United States.
TOMORROW IN SHANGHAI, By May-lee Chai
BLAIR • AUGUST 2022 • 142 PAGES • $18 PAPERBACK
A mother and a daughter forced to deal with their feelings, members of different classes interacting in outer space, and a family facing the sometimes grim realities of pastoral life are just a few of the relationships teased out in May-lee Chai’s story collection. Chai examines the nuances of Chinese culture, both in China and within the Chinese diaspora, exploring multiculturalism and the various identifications by which we define—and divide—people.
FLUID, By Lisa Teasley
CUNE PRESS • SEPTEMBER 2023 • 132 PAGES • $16 PAPERBACK
Myriad lives and the various concerns, hopes, desires, struggles, fears, beginnings, and endings that fill them are celebrated in Lisa Teasley’s profound collection. Many of the stories are set in her home state of California; others take place elsewhere in the United States as well as in England and Namibia.
A DOWN HOME MEAL FOR THESE DIFFICULT TIMES, By Meron Hadero
RESTLESS BOOKS • JUNE 2022 • 224 PAGES • $26 HARDCOVER
Immigrants, lost souls, wanderers, refugees, dreamers, and hopefuls ground these stories by Meron Hadero. Some of these characters have been displaced, and some of them are doing all they can not to be. But all of them are looking for connection to others or to place. In this debut collection, Hadero creates an intricate, seemingly endlessly expansive vision of what it means to look for home.
MATH FOR THE SELF-CRIPPLING, By Ursula Villarreal-Moura
GOLD LINE PRESS • MAY 2022 • 66 PAGES • $10 PAPERBACK
Many of the flash fiction stories that make up this collection capture the nuances of growing up Chicana in south Central Texas in the 1990s. Ursula Villarreal-Moura’s characters contend with relationship woes, an often hostile world, mystic phenomena, and questions about basically everything as the collection progresses to our current moment.
