"The Quiet Part Loud has that rare quality of looking good from every angle. The characters are memorable, the story arcs are delicate and satisfying, each word is earned, and the sentences, often pithy and vernacular, are worlds unto themselves. I fully expect to see sentences like, "Our life was a stick-up, and we wanted everyone's attention, all of it, put it in the bag," inked across chests and biceps at beaches up and down both coasts. This chapbook is for youth--its freedom and rapture but also its solipsism and cruelty. I was astonished by [the book's] observations, which seemed both of the moment and wiser than it, with characters that raise a middle finger to their own impermanence while sensing the change that hovers. I will return often to these masterful stories that made me whisper holy shit as I read them and linger still."-Kara Vernor, author of Because I Wanted to Write You a Pop Song"The Quiet Part Loud is precious and wild, each story sharp and twinkling. As a child I was afraid to touch glitter; what if it got in my eyes? Now, after reading this book, I know the answer: I ache, and the world sparkles."-Lindsay Hunter, author of Eat Only When You're Hungry "A book like a jungle gym made of perfect sentences, the whole thing alive and bright and true."-Ben Loory, author of Tales of Falling and Flying "I know people say 'so-and-so takes you places' in blurbs all the time, but Tyler Barton really takes you places, some of which include: an exploding house, a Papa John's Dumpster, a green house, a Ft. Lauderdale shelter, a Kentucky cemetery. It's a hell of a trip, packed with unforgettable travel companions. I loved these pieces. I loved how they soar, loved how they made you wince and laugh and root for people even as they're not making the best decisions. The Quiet Part Loud lives up to its sonorous title. It's a collection stuffed with all kinds of tasty noise and skillful crescendos and moving downbeats, and it's necessary and urgent and you should pick it up and read it right now." -Juan Martinez, author of Best Worst American

The Quiet Part Loud

Literature & Fiction

Barton, Tyler

United States

Independently published

Loss and rediscovery occupy the heart of this adventurous collection. The characters in Eternal Night at the Nature Museum find refuge in strange, repurposed spaces: a middle-aged addict emcees a demolition derby, which transforms into a hostel, then a cult; a church congregates in an abandoned Hardee's; octogenarians escape their nursing home; unsupervised children sell knives to the neighborhood. In a contemporary America blemished with loneliness and late-capitalism, there is no end to the fractured places in which these characters find 'home.' In twenty vivid, rowdy, buoyant stories--ranging from one-page flashes to thirty-page odysseys--Barton assembles a collection of unforgettable safe havens perfect for crashing, even if only for a night.

Eternal Night at the Nature Museum

Humor & Satire

Sarabande Books

Winner of the 2017 Turnbuckle Chapbook Contest, The Quiet Part Loud is a collection of eleven flash fictions diving into the lives of restless, often lawless youths on the rural East Coast during late-aughts. Whether having lost a home or feeling like home is slowly disappearing, these characters act out in ways familiar and strange. Runaways fight security guards, houses explode, theft is flagrant, sex abounds, mannequin arms bob from Buick windows, and all forms of communication get very loud before fully breaking down.

Short Stories & Anthologies

Split/Lip Press

Volume 10 of the Heavy Feather Review literary annual. Featuring fiction by Joanna Ruocco, Eleanor Levine, Tyler Barton, and Alex Behr. Poetry by Parker Tettleton, Ori Fienberg, and Jessie Janeshek. A material index by Mike Corrao. And much more.

Heavy Feather Review Vol. 10

Ruocco, Joanna

Janeshek, Jessie

Literary

Heavy Feather Review

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