DATING MISS UNIVERSE: NINE STORIES (Ohio State Univ Prize in Short Fiction)

Steven Polansky's universe has no heroes, no villains. His people are fallen and eminently human. They try to live difficult lives with dignity and grace, to cope with what scares them. These are powerful stories of brokenness - broken families, failed loves, dangerous intimacies, unrealized dreams - that are surprisingly tender and often comic. These are stories that are at once bright and dark, written with scrupulous moral precision.