Homecoming

This collection of four short stories, if it adds up to anything at all, is a meditation on loss. And because a story about loss must also be a story about love, I hope this is also a meditation on love. These stories are otherwise unified only by a place, which is Oregon, as it exists in my memory. This collection spans from the Oregon suburbs, where I grew up, to the northeastern forests and waterways, and down to the rural flatlands south of there. These are places and feelings that have, for one reason or another, stuck with me. What clarity or precision I have managed in this work was greatly enhanced by guidance from Brad Leithauser, my thesis advisor, and from James Arthur, my thesis reader. In other instances, Alice McDermott, Jean McGarry, and Eric Puchner have read various portions of what has become my thesis, and have all contributed invaluable direction