Wonderful Tricks

Winner of the Mid-List First Series Award for Short Fiction. The loneliness and awkwardness of single parenting— for the adolescent child and the parent— figure prominently in Spatz's earnest, understated collection of stories. These stories concern love— between father and son, mother and son, and between lovers— and the characters confront a yearning for permanence and perfection in their relationships. They are searching for someone to hold on to, someone to come back for, someone to define for them the nature of love. These stories are geographically diverse, with settings spanning from New England, the Northeast, California, and the Midwest. Each of the stories have been previously published and include "Walking in My Sleep," "Lisa Picking Cockles," and "Plenty of Pools in Texas."