SKIP HORACK

FOR THE SOUTHERN CROSS:

These stories evoke places with a sharp, sensuous and at times magical skill. They also dramatize characters and states of mind with a fierce truthfulness and sense of understanding. Horack’s style has a beautiful edge to it; the range of his sympathy makes this a wonderful collection.

— Colm Tóibín

Every one of these stories serves up a unique world peopled by individuals who could, each of them, star in his or her own series. They are all epic-worthy. And yet, Skip Horack appears to have so much talent, talent to burn, that he can let each character occupy a single story, no more. That restraint—that simultaneous sense of abundance and tantalizing withholding—is primarily what made this collection stand out for me.

—Antonya Nelson

These stories are alive with feeling, they are strong and intelligent, they explore the geography of a place and a time and a people—and they explore it unforgettably. Skip Horack is a writer to watch.

—John L’Heureux

These stories are the real deal, the way Larry Brown's and Raymond Carver's stories are real. They move at depth with what can only be called a great and authentic soul. This is a special book, and the announcement of a wonderful writer and storyteller.

—Rick Bass

How on earth does one man know so much about beekeeping, fox trapping, rabbit farming, and the animal ways of the human heart? In these beautiful, unflinching, pitch-perfect stories, Skip Horack unbuckles the Bible Belt to show us an America we tend to ignore, one in which love and loss, grace and sorrow, are all in a day’s work. The Southern Cross is a timely and powerful collection.

—Eric Puchner

Each of these deeply felt stories is an offbeat song of the new South. From post-K New Orleans to the Panhandle, Horack rummages fearlessly through the houses and trailers and yards and bars where his characters kill time and make hay, so he can unearth what worries their hearts. His is an intrepid and startling new literary voice.

—Pia Z. Ehrhardt