A current of longing runs through twenty-two short stories by Oregon writers. As the characters strive for connection, they make mistakes, reach out to the wrong people, and recalibrate their lives based on what they desire, whether or not it’s attainable—or even a good idea. A shy pyromaniac takes a chance on love. A young woman hands her decisions to a man she’s never met. An abandoned father and son struggle to pull a stump from the stubborn ground, the town wailer loses her voice after her mother’s death, and a cloudless Oregon sky triggers a trip for a final goodbye. Editor Liz Prato has curated a powerful collection of smart, funny, sad, exquisite stories about the losses that shape our lives. Featuring stories by Jan Baross, Gail Bartley, Victoria Blake, Alisha Churbe, Sage Cohen, Ellen Davidson Levine, Steve Denniston, Trevor Dodge, Gregg Kleiner, Christi Krug, Kathleen Lane, Dylan Lee, Margaret Malone, Matthew Robinson, Joanna Rose, Lois Rosen, Jackie Shannon Hollis, Domi Shoemaker, Scott Sparling, Tammy Lynne Stoner, Jennifer Williams, and Cindy Williams Gutiérrez.

The Night, and the Rain, and the River: 22 Stories

Literature & Fiction

Prato, Liz

United States

Forest Avenue Press

FINALIST for the Oregon Book Award Best Travel Memoirs of 2019 - The Great Big Story ". . . a rebuke to cultural appropriation, combined with tribute to a place she loves too much to make her own."- New York Times Book Review “...a complicated love letter to a place and powerful reckoning of a life.” - Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things "Prato’s work stays winningly informal and idiosyncratic throughout and....coalesces into an intriguing and informative journey through the 50th state.” - Publishers Weekly “This book is a love letter to the land and people of Hawai‘i, a secular devotional to a place that has woven its way into Liz Prato’s heart. Breathtaking.” – Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan Liz Prato combines lyricism, research and humor to explore her role as a white tourist in a seemingly paradisiacal land that has been largely formed and destroyed by white outsiders. Hawaiian history, pop culture, and contemporary affairs are masterfully woven with her personal narrative of loss and survival in linked essays, offering unique insight into how the touristic ideal of Hawai‘i came to be, and what Hawai‘i is at its core.

Volcanoes, Palm Trees, and Privilege: Essays on Hawai'i

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Overcup Press

"Liz Prato's characters blaze with humanity, sensuality, and hope. Her writing glitters and her stories push us to the edge: Prato rubs her people together until they spark, in a book that throbs with heart--and grips our own." --Dylan Landis, Rainey Royal "Liz Prato's stories are filled with the lost, the lonely, and the damned, and she makes all of them sing with a haunting grandeur. Baby's on Fire is a lamentation brimming with wit, candor, and the eternal possibility of mercy." --Steve Almond, Candyfreak, God Bless America "In her terrific debut, Baby's on Fire, Liz Prato pulls off the ultimate balancing act: the stories are at once beautifully written and tremendously compelling -- not to mention filled with characters so full of life that they feel as real as people we know. A knockout collection." --Molly Antopol, The UnAmericans "Reading this book felt like talking to a good friend with good music on in the background. Liz Prato's stories are great fun to read, and funny, and warm as can be, so even when they are painful and sad, they still genuinely welcome a reader."--Aimee Bender, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Baby's on Fire: Stories

Literary

Press 53

Squeezed between the Baby Boomers and Millenials, Generation X was all but written off as cynical, sarcastic, slackers. Yet this generation profoundly impacted American culture--and were impacted by it--in ways that are only now being understood. In her revealing and provocative collection, KIDS IN AMERICA: A GEN X RECKONING, Liz Prato reveals a generation deeply affected by terrorism, racial inequality, rape culture, and mental illness, in an era when none of these issues were openly discussed.\nExamined through the lens of her high school and family, Prato reveals a small, forgotten cohort shaped as much by Sixteen Candles and Beverly Hills, 90210, as it was by the Rodney King riots and the threat of nuclear annihilation. Prato is unflinching in asking hard questions about what behavior was then acceptable or overlooked, and how we reconcile those sins today. KIDS IN AMERICA illuminates a generation that is often cited, but rarely examined beyond the gloss of nostalgia.

Kids in America: A Gen X Reckoning

Essays & Correspondence

Santa Fe Writer's Project

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Books by Prato, Liz