Winner of the 2007 Texas Review Fiction Prize

Splinterville

Cliff Hudder
Near starvation in Northern Georgia, Confederate private Henry 
Wallace of Hood's Texas Brigade accidentally ingests psychotropic 
mushrooms before marching into the second day of the Battle of 
Chickamauga, but lives to tell about it in a long (forty-one-foot) letter 
to his dead comrade's father. Or does he? As Private Wallace's 
meandering tale, scrawled on a roll of wrapping paper, unravels, 
historians and scholars battle in footnotes over whether this document 
full of peculiar claims, internal inconsistencies, and anachronistic 
content is a first-hand report or an elaborate forgery.

"This is a stunning debut by a master storyteller."—Wendell Mayo

"I don't recall many historical novellas or novels abounding in comedy. Another distinctive technique is the pseudo-footnotes. They remind me of Nabokov's footnotes in Pale Fire."—Robert Phillips

"Hudder's evocation of another time and place is enhanced by his editor's protesting voice, both of which lend good humor to counterpoint the poignant story of young lives wasted in war."—Clay Reynolds

"In a manner reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges, Cliff Hudder weaves a tale of fact, fiction, legend and imagination that is intriguing, enthralling and believable."—Robert Flynn _________________________________________________________ CLIFF HUDDER teaches English at Montgomery College in Conroe, Texas. An MFA graduate of the University of Houston, his stories have appeared in numerous publications, and his work has received the Barthelme Award, the Michener Award, the Peden Prize, and the Brazos Bookstore Short Story Award from the Texas Institute of Letters. Splinterville is his first book.

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Splinterville

978-1-933896-13-7
paper
  $14.95
5 1/2x8 1/2. 78 pp. Fiction. APRIL 2008