I Got Somebody In Staunton: Stories

Description

The acclaimed William Henry Lewis writes ten often sensual and always eye-opening tales from Black America. "Rossonian Days" follows a Kansas City jazz band to Denver, where they hope to strike it big. The story becomes not just a chronicle of the band's journey but a poetic riff on the evolution of jazz. In "Shades"-which was reprinted in Best American Short Stories of 1996-a young teenager meets his father for the first and possibly the last time, a meeting made even more unsettling by the thought that the father doesn't know the boy is his son. In an unexpected story about the influence of family, "I Got Somebody in Staunton," a black man who meets a white women in a bar in Fredericksbug, Virginia has second thoughts about driving her to Staunton, the next town heading South, once he recalls his Uncle Izelle's foreboding tales about lynchings on lonely roads.

William Henry Lewis is the prizewinning author of a previous story collection, In the Arms of Our Elders. His fiction has appeared in America's top literary journals and several anthologies. He has been honored with many awards, including a prize for short fiction from the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation, he was a finalist for the 2005 PEN Faulkner Prize for Fiction, and he is the 2006 recipient of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Fiction Honor Award.

"Lewis is an exceptionally promising new writer...intelligent and skilled and very interesting, with a sharp and compassionate eye." -- Peter Matthiessen on In the Arms of Elders "A storyteller with a superb sense of place... Evocative stories with a potent kick." -- Kirkus Reviews "Thoughtful, appealing...unquestionably powerful." -- Publishers Weekly "Lyrical, risk-taking collection. Lewis renders beautifully the sadness of both those left behind and those who've done the leaving." -- O magazine "Sentence by sentence, this deeply felt and lyrical collection proves that Lewis is a master of the short story." -- --Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genuis "Lewis's new collection of stories is tender, ironic, disturbing, and always poetic. His work is a treasure." -- --Edward P. Jones, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, The Known World "These are quiet, deadly stories, beautifully rendered and exquisitely American." -- --Percival Everett, author of Erasure "The art of the short story is seduction. And how lovely it is to visit with this amazing voice." -- --Nikki Giovanni "Lewis beautifully renders the odd, quiet moments before and after life's explosive events>" -- Entertainment Weekly "Moving but unsentimental, these are stories of hard-won wisdom, potent intelligence, and compassion for the cadence of everyday life." -- Boston Globe "Lewis's stories of love, loss and longing have a sensuous appeal... and earn their keep in the last lines." -- New York Times Book Review "Haunting, nuanced...With effortless elegance...an important reminder that...the best things are still well worth waiting for." -- Elle "Intriguing, thought-provoking collection." -- Pittsburgh Tribune "Powerful...rhythmic lilt to these stories... making plain the uncertainties of blacks in America-- a subject Lewis handles with skill." -- Time Out New York "Resplendent. The stories are beautifully written and carefully crafted." -- Los Angeles Times "Lewis, master storyteller, seems less concerned with poetic language as he writes simply and powerfully of inner and exterior landscapes." -- Providence Journal "A reader ... will find plenty to love in this collection of stories." -- Richmond Times-Dispatch "Magnificent description brings to life characters we all have encountered...That is the mark of an accomplished writer." -- Richmond Times-Dispatch "Lewis is both an artistic and a political writer. . . . [with] a notable gift for prose poetry." -- Washington Post "Lewis' language is tight and controlled, smooth even, weighted with rhythm and complexity." -- --Lacey Galbraith, Nashville Scene