TRACHODON 2 features literary writing by some of today's most engaging authors. In "Forked River," Oregon Book Award-winner Scott Nadelson takes us into the offices of the New Jersey state government, and into the heart of a lobbyist whose life is about to change; in "Therapy," Michael Delp explores the high cost of healing through a darkly humorous story; Brian Maxwell shows us the teeming Florida coast through the eyes of a naive but free-thinking young man; essayist Shannon Huffman Polson shows us the rewards and responsibilities of inheriting an Alaskan log cabin; Abby E. Murray contributes two poems "whose personal language is part of that richness we cannot do without" (Marvin Bell); and Nathan Graziano's poem "In Anticipation of My Next Bad Decision" delivers exactly what it promises. Also features black and white photography by Shane Darwent. TRACHODON, A Dinosaur of a Little Magazine, is published twice a year, in March and September. Visit www.trachodon.org for information on subscribing, submitting, or advertising.

Trachodon 2: A Dinosaur of a Little Magazine

Literature & Fiction

Delp, Michael

Nadelson, Scott

Graziano, Nathan

Murray, Abby E.

Maxwell, Brian

Huffman Polson, Shannon

Literary

Trachodon Publishing LLC

Winner of the H.L. Davis Award for Short Fiction at the 2004 Oregon Book Awards and GLCA's 2005 New Writers Award, Scott Nadelson’s interrelated short stories are graceful, vivid narratives that bring into sudden focus the spirit and the stubborn resilience of the Brickmans, a Jewish family of four living in suburban New Jersey. The central character, Daniel Brickman, forges obstinately through his own plots and desires as he struggles to balance his sense of identity with his longing to gain acceptance from his family and peers. In Kosher, Daniel’s disdain for his parents’ values and lifestyle, for their materialism and need for security, leads him to take a job as a telemarketer for the Robowski Fund for the Disabled, a charity benefiting two people only: Daniel and Helen Robowski. And in Young Radicals, Daniel gathers research for a thesis on early Soviet history by interviewing his grandfather, now a retiree in Florida, who painted factories and sang Communist work songs in 1920s Leningrad before immigrating to America. This fierce collection provides an unblinking examination of family life and the human instinct for attachment.

Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories

United States

Hawthorne Books

The Cantor's Daughter is the compelling new collection from Oregon Book Award Winner and recipient of the GLCA's New Writers Award for 2005, Scott Nadelson. In his follow-up to Saving Stanley, these stories capture Jewish New Jersey suburbanites in moments of crucial transition, when they have the opportunity to connect with those closest to them or forever miss their chance for true intimacy. In "The Headhunter," two men develop an unlikely friendship at work, but after twenty years of mutually supporting each other’s families and careers their friendship comes to an abrupt and surprising end. In the title story, Noa Nechemia and her father have immigrated from Israel following a tragic car accident her mother did not survive. In one stunning moment of insight following a disastrous prom night, Noa discovers her ability to transcend grief and determine the direction of her own life. And in Half a Day in Halifax” Beth and Roger meet on a cruise ship where their shared lack of enthusiasm for their trip sparks the possibility of romance. Nadelson's stories are sympathetic, heartbreaking, and funny as they investigate the characters' fragile emotional bonds and the fears that often cause those bonds to falter or fail.

The Cantor's Daughter: Stories

Contemporary

THE CHARACTERS IN SCOTT NADELSON’S third collection are living in the wake of momentous events-- the rupture of relationships, the loss of loved ones, the dissolution of dreams, and yet they find new ways of forging on with their lives, making accommodations that are sometimes delusional, sometimes destructive, sometimes even healthy. In Oslo,” a thirteen-year-old boy on a trip to Israel with his grandparents grapples with his father’s abandonment and his own rocky coming-of-age. In The Old Uniform,” a young man left by his fiancée revisits the haunts of his single days, and on a drunken march through nighttime Brooklyn, begins to shed the false selves that have kept him from fully living. And in the title story, a couple testing out the waters of trial separation quickly discover how deeply the fault lines of their marriage run and how desperately they want to hang onto what remains. Mining Nadelson’s familiar territory of Jewish suburban New Jersey, these fearless, funny, and quietly moving stories explore the treacherous crossroads where disappointments meet unfulfilled desire.

Aftermath: Stories

Short Stories & Anthologies

Beginning in the summer of 2004, Scott Nadelson’s life fell apart. His fiancée left him a month before their planned wedding for another woman who made her living performing as a drag king. He moved into a drafty attic. His car’s brakes went out. He learned that his cat was dying. Over the next two years, he’d struggle, with equivocal and sometimes humiliating results, to get back on his feet, in the process re-examining his past to understand his present circumstances. The Next Scott Nadelson: A Life in Progress is a literary self-portrait that revolves around the dissolution of a relationship but encompasses the long process of a young man’s halting self-discovery. Exploring episodes from the life of its author/narrator marked by failure, suffering, and hope, as well as literary and cultural influence, the book weighs the things that make us want to give up against the things that keep us going. Though many of the pieces are comic and self-deprecatingsome self-laceratingthey are above all meditations on the nature of the self and the way it can be constructed through memory, desire, and the imagination. Together they form a larger narrative, a search for fulfillment and identity in a life often governed by fear. With humor and unflinching honesty, Scott Nadelson scrutinizes his life to discover who he is and finds just how elusive such a discovery can be. To read the resulting book is to join him on a personal journey that is thoughtful, surprising, occasionally hilarious, and unapologetically human.

The Next Scott Nadelson: A Life in Progress

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Every night, after the kids have gone to bed, he searches for their shoes. They might be anywhere: under the family room couch, in the middle of the kitchen floor, on the basement landing, or if it's warm enough, out on the lawn, growing damp with dew. This is one of his contributions to the efficient running of the household, maybe his most important contribution, though not the most visible. If anyone has noticed, none has said a word. He performs the task quietly, without announcing himself, and takes private pleasure in knowing how useful he has been.
Paul Haberman was happy living alone in the city until he met Cynthia, an enchanting suburban single mother. After he moves to New Jersey to marry her, Paul's life reshapes itself dramatically around his new family and home, evolving over the years in ways he could never have imagined. In this funny, moving, episodic novel, Scott Nadelson reveals the quiet beauty, doubt, and longing of a blended family's life in the unglamorous American suburbs.
Scott Nadelson is the author of three story collections, most recently Aftermath, and a memoir, The Next Scott Nadelson: A Life in Progress. Winner of the Reform Judaism Fiction Prize, the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, and an Oregon Book Award, he teaches at Willamette University and in the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA Program at Pacific Lutheran University.

Between You and Me

Engine Books

The characters in Scott Nadelson's latest collection abandon their lands of origin, sever their roots, and distance themselves from the people they once were. These stories roam geographically and historically, featuring a would-be assassin in 1920s Paris, Jewish utopians in 1880s Oregon, and teenage girls seeking revenge in 1980s New Jersey among their casts of beautifully rendered outcasts and seekers.

The Fourth Corner of the World

Fiction. Jewish Studies. Short Stories. Winner of the G. S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction, selected by Amina Gautier. The stories in ONE OF US explore the tension between groups and individuals, the allure of tribalism, the claustrophobia of belonging, and the alienation that comes with separation. They range from autobiographical to historical and roam temporally and geographically, chronicling, among others, an encounter between the sculptor Louise Nevelson and the anti-Semitic French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline; a synagogue congregation facing ongoing public scandal; a comedy improv troupe trying to cross the threshold from amateur to professional; and a young man navigating the competing pulls of adventure and domestic bliss at the cusp of the new millennium.

One of Us: Stories

BkMk Press at the University of Missouri-Kansas City

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Nadelson, Scott. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Nadelson, Scott