*Finalist, PEN/Hemingway Award
*Winner, Balcones Fiction Prize
*Named a Best Book of the Year by Powell's Books
*A Powell's Books "25 Books to Read Before You Die" Selection
*Winner, Balcones Fiction Prize
*Named a Best Book of the Year by Powell's Books
*A Powell's Books "25 Books to Read Before You Die" Selection
The 2016 PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist citation
for People Like You:
"In plainspoken American speech, with great delicacy and wit, the nine stories
in Margaret Malone's People Like You constantly beguile and surprise.
With Chekhov they share both compassion and brevity; they share with Carver and
Beattie a confidence in the unforced sentiment of unadorned prose;
and in their matter-of-fact humor, which is often laugh-out-loud funny,
they tap a long tradition of American humorists stretching from Mark Twain
to Lorrie Moore. What sets them apart are Malone's protagonists:
dark, troubled women unafraid to puncture the pieties or to confront the void.
Three of these stories involve a beleaguered wife named Cheryl whose life
gains real emotional heft despite the often absurd predicaments she finds herself in,
predicaments that look and feel all too much like real life. That is the
great pleasure here: these artful stories have the force of truth in every line."
(Judges Joshua Ferris, Alexandra Marshall, and Jay Parini)
for People Like You:
"In plainspoken American speech, with great delicacy and wit, the nine stories
in Margaret Malone's People Like You constantly beguile and surprise.
With Chekhov they share both compassion and brevity; they share with Carver and
Beattie a confidence in the unforced sentiment of unadorned prose;
and in their matter-of-fact humor, which is often laugh-out-loud funny,
they tap a long tradition of American humorists stretching from Mark Twain
to Lorrie Moore. What sets them apart are Malone's protagonists:
dark, troubled women unafraid to puncture the pieties or to confront the void.
Three of these stories involve a beleaguered wife named Cheryl whose life
gains real emotional heft despite the often absurd predicaments she finds herself in,
predicaments that look and feel all too much like real life. That is the
great pleasure here: these artful stories have the force of truth in every line."
(Judges Joshua Ferris, Alexandra Marshall, and Jay Parini)
The 2015 BALCONES FICTION PRIZE citation for People Like You:
"Margaret Malone's People Like You is a masterfully minimalist collection of lives lived poorly but with the best of intentions. Her stories are powerful, sad, and plain-spoken, and this debut collection takes the normative-yet-desperate circuits of the day-to-day that Bobbie Anne Mason and Frederick Barthelme brought to the forefront of American short fiction and makes them both new again and powerfully affecting. These are marvelous and worthy stories, and very much deserving of recognition." (Judge John Blair, author of American Standard)
"Margaret Malone's People Like You is a masterfully minimalist collection of lives lived poorly but with the best of intentions. Her stories are powerful, sad, and plain-spoken, and this debut collection takes the normative-yet-desperate circuits of the day-to-day that Bobbie Anne Mason and Frederick Barthelme brought to the forefront of American short fiction and makes them both new again and powerfully affecting. These are marvelous and worthy stories, and very much deserving of recognition." (Judge John Blair, author of American Standard)
|
*2016 PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist*
*Winner, Balcones Fiction Prize* *Named a Best Book of the Year by: The Oregonian The Portland Mercury Powell's Books The Quivering Pen *The Inaugural Late Night Library Book Club Selection* *A 35 Over 35 Selection for 2015* |
"Malone's characters are funny and unhappy and self-sabotaging and honest and brave. I couldn't stop reading these stories and now I find myself missing them, so I go and reread them over and over. I want to go over to Malone's house and cook her meals and do her grocery shopping so that she has time to write more books, because the world needs more of her writing." --Maddie Dawson, in CNN Travel
"Margaret Malone's characters are like Miranda July's without the financial resources: fiercely funny and keenly unhappy, and wanly persistent in their belief in their capacity to change even as they remain expert at observing, as if from afar, their own genius for self-sabotage. People Like You is wonderful on how much we need each other and let each other down, and how despite that and against all odds we grow into loving one another." --JIM SHEPARD, author of The Book of Aron and Story Prize winner "People Like You is a powerful debut by a writer of immense talent. ... I love this book beyond measure." --CHERYL STRAYED, author of Wild "The stories in Margaret Malone’s collection People Like You will blow your mind, steal your heart, and leave your DNA rearranged. Her writing is brilliantly urgent and alive. The biggest mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of storytelling I’ve seen in years.” --LIDIA YUKNAVITCH, author of The Small Backs of Children and The Chronology of Water "Margaret Malone's stories are fearless and true. People Like You is a sharp debut that leaves the reader eager with want for all the books that follow." --KYLE MINOR, author of Praying Drunk and Story Prize Spotlight Award winner "Malone is a master of the minimal. ... And did I mention hilarious? Don’t let these wonderful stories pass you up. Margaret Malone is a name that will soon be up there with the best and brightest." --TOM SPANBAUER, author of I Loved You More and recipient of the Stewart Holbrook Literary Legacy Award |
Featured by: Marginalia (KMUW, Wichita) Behind the Book (NYC) CNN Travel Connotation Press Dire Reading Series (Cambridge, MA) Good Day Oregon (Fox12) Heavy Feather Review Hypertext Magazine KBOO Radio KLCC Radio Late Night Debut Largehearted Boy Litfix (Seattle) The Mouths of Others Reading Series The Nervous Breakdown NewPages The New Short Fiction Series (Hollywood) NW Book Lovers Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) The Oregonian Other People with Brad Listi The Portland Mercury Portland Monthly Propeller Quarterly The Quivering Pen Read Her Like An Open Book Shelf Awareness Small Press Picks The Story Prize Blog Thru Magazine We Wanted to Be Writers Willamette University New Voices Series Wordstock Why There Are Words (San Francisco) |
"[A] stunningly composed debut ... deeply intimate ... reads masterfully ... The stories are crafted without feeling crafted, they tow the reader through. ... Thank goodness these chronicles are not tidy, nor are the characters. ... But they're true." --Kirsten Rian, The Oregonian
"Malone's writing could be seen as a close cousin to the work of Tom Drury, Mary Robison, or Denis Johnson — stories that casually draw you in and leave you wanting more. People Like You feels like being let in on a secret that won't stay secret for long."--Joshua James Amberson, The Portland Mercury
"A mesmerizing debut, filled with characters whose hardscrabble lives will haunt you long after you finish their stories."--Largehearted Boy
"May be the best book of short stories published this year."--Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB)
"The clarity and density and unifying humanity of [Malone's] people overwhelmed me. ... The individual circumstances suck you in, the storylines of love and loss, birth and infertility. But the details don't really matter in the end. What's compelling is how, regardless of the struggles with out individual insecurities and circumstances, we share a common humanity."--Connie Bennett, KLCC Radio
"Hilarious, strong, visceral, and brilliant."--Connotation Press
"The stories in Margaret Malone's debut collection breathe and move. Her minimalist style perfectly conveys loneliness and sadness in seemingly-banal moments that reveal profound truths about lives in constant flux—writing that whispers but will knock you down."—John Cleary, bookseller, Papercuts J.P. (Boston) (Staff Pick)
"[People Like You] will grab you and amuse you and maybe horrify you with its wry and dark look at the small imperfections that make us human. A lovely, clear, engaging voice."--Douglas Chase, Powell's Books (Staff Pick)
"Malone’s writing feels effortless even in its literary intensity. The stories all concern being stuck — in less-than-perfect relationships, addiction, infertility ... By the end, however, the recurring thread of one set of characters comes out on the other side, and hope is restored. I loved this book." —Chorel, Bookshop Santa Cruz (Staff Pick)
"This is, beyond a doubt, some of the best fiction I’ve read all year — short or otherwise."--David Abrams, The Quivering Pen
"Margaret Malone’s masterfully constructed stories simmer with a dry, dark humor that reveals the truth of the human soul. People Like You makes good on the promise of its title, with characters who are fully formed heads and hearts and bodies struggling with loneliness, love (or lack thereof), and who — and how — to be in the modern world." --LIZ PRATO, author of Baby's on Fire
"Splendid and sordid, sneaky and forthright, jaded and full of hope. Malone has tremendous powers of observation, and these detailed, plain-mouthed tales have big, beating hearts."--ROBIN ROMM, author of The Mercy Papers and The Mother Garden
"A stunning debut. Somehow Malone manages to be both gutsy and subtle at once -- her characters are complicated, messed up in the very best way, and full of depth. ... Deserves many, many readers and high praise!"--LISA GLATT, author of The Nakeds and A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That
"[Malone] captures the desires, frustrations, and absurdities of modern life. Set in the Western states, these closely observed tales are told through the eyes of women, but are equally concerned with the men who share their lives. ... Malone's stories burn with unfulfilled yearning and spark with the frayed connections between her exquisitely rendered characters. These are people you feel that you know. People who are so like all of us. People like you." --Michael Keefe, Annie Bloom's Booksellers (Staff Pick)
"Like the book's title, every sentence and paragraph is elegantly constructed to mean what it means and to mean more. ... Malone's delicately-honed skill is a voice so true, so absolutely you and me, bearing witness to the traumas, triumphs and tragedies of all the tiny moments of regular life."—Gigi Little, Powell's Books (Staff Pick)
"Brief, bitterly funny stories about the sort of people who tie themselves in knots in their heads and feel uncomfortable in their own skin and can never quite bring themselves to say the words they desperately need to say -- which, at some point, includes all of us." --Oregon Humanities Magazine
"I finished People Like You on a crowded red-eye and couldn’t stop thinking about Malone’s characters...With all their specific little joys and sorrows, it felt like they were sitting all around me in the dark plane, their lives as rich and circumscribed and briefly illuminated as my own."--Heavy Feather Review
"Hilarious, wonderfully strange, and occasionally heartbreaking."--Small Press Picks
"The full beauty of Malone's writing never flaunts itself, but carries a quietly growing ruckus of feeling to the last lovely paragraph."—Donna Miscolta, Hypertext Magazine
"Put a Post-it note on your forehead with Margaret Malone’s name on it. You won’t want to miss her next act."--NewPages
"Malone's writing could be seen as a close cousin to the work of Tom Drury, Mary Robison, or Denis Johnson — stories that casually draw you in and leave you wanting more. People Like You feels like being let in on a secret that won't stay secret for long."--Joshua James Amberson, The Portland Mercury
"A mesmerizing debut, filled with characters whose hardscrabble lives will haunt you long after you finish their stories."--Largehearted Boy
"May be the best book of short stories published this year."--Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB)
"The clarity and density and unifying humanity of [Malone's] people overwhelmed me. ... The individual circumstances suck you in, the storylines of love and loss, birth and infertility. But the details don't really matter in the end. What's compelling is how, regardless of the struggles with out individual insecurities and circumstances, we share a common humanity."--Connie Bennett, KLCC Radio
"Hilarious, strong, visceral, and brilliant."--Connotation Press
"The stories in Margaret Malone's debut collection breathe and move. Her minimalist style perfectly conveys loneliness and sadness in seemingly-banal moments that reveal profound truths about lives in constant flux—writing that whispers but will knock you down."—John Cleary, bookseller, Papercuts J.P. (Boston) (Staff Pick)
"[People Like You] will grab you and amuse you and maybe horrify you with its wry and dark look at the small imperfections that make us human. A lovely, clear, engaging voice."--Douglas Chase, Powell's Books (Staff Pick)
"Malone’s writing feels effortless even in its literary intensity. The stories all concern being stuck — in less-than-perfect relationships, addiction, infertility ... By the end, however, the recurring thread of one set of characters comes out on the other side, and hope is restored. I loved this book." —Chorel, Bookshop Santa Cruz (Staff Pick)
"This is, beyond a doubt, some of the best fiction I’ve read all year — short or otherwise."--David Abrams, The Quivering Pen
"Margaret Malone’s masterfully constructed stories simmer with a dry, dark humor that reveals the truth of the human soul. People Like You makes good on the promise of its title, with characters who are fully formed heads and hearts and bodies struggling with loneliness, love (or lack thereof), and who — and how — to be in the modern world." --LIZ PRATO, author of Baby's on Fire
"Splendid and sordid, sneaky and forthright, jaded and full of hope. Malone has tremendous powers of observation, and these detailed, plain-mouthed tales have big, beating hearts."--ROBIN ROMM, author of The Mercy Papers and The Mother Garden
"A stunning debut. Somehow Malone manages to be both gutsy and subtle at once -- her characters are complicated, messed up in the very best way, and full of depth. ... Deserves many, many readers and high praise!"--LISA GLATT, author of The Nakeds and A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That
"[Malone] captures the desires, frustrations, and absurdities of modern life. Set in the Western states, these closely observed tales are told through the eyes of women, but are equally concerned with the men who share their lives. ... Malone's stories burn with unfulfilled yearning and spark with the frayed connections between her exquisitely rendered characters. These are people you feel that you know. People who are so like all of us. People like you." --Michael Keefe, Annie Bloom's Booksellers (Staff Pick)
"Like the book's title, every sentence and paragraph is elegantly constructed to mean what it means and to mean more. ... Malone's delicately-honed skill is a voice so true, so absolutely you and me, bearing witness to the traumas, triumphs and tragedies of all the tiny moments of regular life."—Gigi Little, Powell's Books (Staff Pick)
"Brief, bitterly funny stories about the sort of people who tie themselves in knots in their heads and feel uncomfortable in their own skin and can never quite bring themselves to say the words they desperately need to say -- which, at some point, includes all of us." --Oregon Humanities Magazine
"I finished People Like You on a crowded red-eye and couldn’t stop thinking about Malone’s characters...With all their specific little joys and sorrows, it felt like they were sitting all around me in the dark plane, their lives as rich and circumscribed and briefly illuminated as my own."--Heavy Feather Review
"Hilarious, wonderfully strange, and occasionally heartbreaking."--Small Press Picks
"The full beauty of Malone's writing never flaunts itself, but carries a quietly growing ruckus of feeling to the last lovely paragraph."—Donna Miscolta, Hypertext Magazine
"Put a Post-it note on your forehead with Margaret Malone’s name on it. You won’t want to miss her next act."--NewPages
Margaret Malone’s writing has appeared in The Missouri Review, Oregon Humanities Magazine, Coal City Review, Propeller Quarterly, The Timberline Review, Swink, Nailed, latimes.com, and elsewhere, including recently the Forest Avenue Press anthology The Night, and the Rain, and the River. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Oregon Arts Commission and Literary Arts, two Regional Arts & Culture Council Project Grants, and residencies at The Sitka Center and Soapstone. A Dangerous Writers alumnus, Malone has a degree in Philosophy from Humboldt State University and has taught creative writing as a visiting artist at Pacific Northwest College of Art. She lives with her husband filmmaker Brian Padian and two children in Portland, where she co-hosts the artist and literary gathering SHARE.
LITERATURE/FICTION
ISBN: 978-0-9893023-6-4
Trade Paperback 5.5 x 8.5
152 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9893023-6-4
Trade Paperback 5.5 x 8.5
152 pages
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