Living Things

(Paperback)

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Description

Black Creek, South Carolina: a small town in the swamps that convinces itself that nothing bad has ever happened and nothing bad ever will. Black Creek is the sort of place where young girls roam the streets free to imagine who they are and who they'll become. Where women sell pies and plants at the courthouse square. Where the fire department r

Reviews

"The unforgettable characters in Living Things are trying their best, against the odds, to make their own good in a so-called nowhere town in rural South Carolina. With great empathy and the voice of a poet, Landon Houle puts this town and the lives lived there on the map. She has pointed her pen at a forgotten America and said: These people matter. Here are their stories."Nicholas Montemarano, author of The Senators Children

"Houle is a writer to watch. This stunning debut is filled with fresh, affecting stories connected by character and place. In the small town of Black Creek, we meet women and girls toiling ceaselessly to outrun or outsmart their own pasts, to operate just beyond their current abilities, poignantly reminding us that everyone wants the same thinglove, belonging, more.

Charged with moments of grace and strength, the book is best summed up by Miriam in 'Some Threat of Explosion': 'So much had happened to all of them, and it didnt matter that you tried to be careful . . . all any of them could do was hold out their hands even as they showed their teeth.'" Barb Johnson, author of More of This World or Maybe Another

"I love the way that Landon Houle writes. She is a stunning painter of unforgettable images, and she creates characters that I can swear Ive met before, that Ive known my whole life. Living Things is just thattotally alive and as real as your own memories. This is a writer to watch." Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will

Author Bio

Landon Houles collection of linked stories, Living Things, is the 2017 winner of the Red Hen Press Fiction Award. Her writing has won contests at Black Warrior Review, Crab Creek Review, Dogwood, and Permafrost. Other work has appeared in Baltimore Review, Crazyhorse, Natural Bridge, Harpur Palate, River Styx, The New Guard, and elsewhere. Landon was born in Brown County, Texas, and currently lives in Darlington, South Carolina. She is an assistant professor of English and creative writing at Francis Marion University, and she is the fiction editor at Raleigh Review. https://www.landonhoule.com/