"Forty years ago I read a book of stories this wistful and smart about 
American life—Eleven Kinds of Loneliness by Richard Yates. Nancy 
Welch is already that good—and she's just getting started."—David 
Huddle, author of The Story of a Million Years

    "Wise and expertly wrought stories, tales both dark and sweet, 
told with a biting humor and a genuine affection for the dreams and 
the casualties we can't escape."—Lee Martin, author of Quakertown

    The twelve stories in Nancy Welch's debut collection describe a 
post-1970s industrial landscape in which families face joblessness, 
transience, and an increasingly tenuous foothold on the lower rungs 
of the middle class. The daughters and sons, fathers and wives in 
these stories set in small-town Ohio are bounced out of the American 
dream by layoffs and shutdowns, by the uncertainty of steady work 
and steadfast love.

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NANCY WELCH was born in Florida and grew up in Ohio, Michigan, 
and Minnesota. She was a secretary and police reporter before finding 
her way to college and to writing fiction. Her stories have appeared in 
venues such as Prairie Schooner, Threepenny Review, and 
Greensboro Review. She teaches at the University of Vermont and 
lives in Burlington.