Stonecoast MFA Alumni Publications

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  Where the Forest Meets the River

  Shannon Bowring MFA

  It's been five years since Bridget Theroux's death shocked the small town of Dalton, Maine, leaving behind husband Nate and daughter Sophie, now a vibrant young child. Nate doesn't always know how to answer her questions, but he is intent on raising her with joy--and shielding her from her grandmother, Annette, who remains dangerously locked away in her grief.

  After his first year away at college, Greg Fortin is back in town for the summer to work at the family store. It's expected he'll take over the hardware business eventually, but finding the words to tell them no--and the truth about who he is--has become his own Everest. Rose's abusive ex, Tommy finally disappeared a few years ago, though sometimes his presence in the eyes of her oldest son unnerves her. She and Nate are finding themselves drawn together by their children's playdates, and into a delicate balance between friendship and the possibility of more.

  And Trudy and Bev, always so sure of their love for each other, find themselves rocked when Trudy's husband Richard suffers a heart attack, bringing into focus all the guilt she has felt about their empty marriage for years.

  Shannon Bowring demonstrates once again that she understands exactly where the heart of a story lies. Where the Forest Meets the River is a poignant return to the small town of Dalton, whose inhabitants continue to startle and humble both themselves--and us.

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  Fire Exit

  Morgan Talty MFA

  From the porch of his home, Charles Lamosway has watched the life he might have had unfold across the river on Maine’s Penobscot Reservation. On the far bank, he caught brief moments of his neighbor Elizabeth’s life—from the day she came home from the hospital to her early twenties. But there’s always been something deeper and more dangerous than the river that divides him from her and the rest of the tribal community. It’s the secret that Elizabeth is his daughter, a secret Charles is no longer willing to keep.

  Now, it’s been weeks since he’s seen Elizabeth, and Charles is worried. As he attempts to hold on to and care for what he can—his home and property; his alcoholic, quick-tempered, and bighearted friend Bobby; and his mother, Louise, who is slipping ever deeper into dementia—he becomes increasingly haunted by his past. Forced to confront a lost childhood on the reservation, a love affair cut short, and the death of his beloved stepfather, Fredrick, in a hunting accident—a death he and Louise are at odds over as to where to lay blame—Charles contends with questions he’s long been afraid to ask. Is his secret about Elizabeth his to share? And would his daughter want to know the truth, even if it could cost her everything she’s ever known?

  From the award-winning author of Night of the Living Rez, Morgan Talty’s debut novel, Fire Exit, is a masterful and unforgettable story of family, legacy, bloodlines, culture and inheritance, and what, if anything, we owe one another.

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  Stranger In My Own Skin

  Cody Mower MFA '21

  After being medically retired out of the Marine Corps, Cody found himself separated from his wife and son, and struggling to deal with a brain injury that had fractured his personality and robbed him of all the things he thought he was. No longer able to stand the face in the mirror, he quickly fell down a rabbit hole of alcoholism, and self-loathing unable to forgive himself for the life he destroyed. Even though he moved to a new city and tried to start over by going to school and doing the 'right' things, he still felt like an empty shell, a ghost living in skin that didn't belong to him. It all came crashing down one summer afternoon when a still suffering from a massive hangover, he truly saw himself in the mirror for the first time, gaunt, broken, and pathetic. Staring at his reflection he knew something had to change. One way or another.

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  The Stones of Riverton

  Clif Travers MFA

  The Stones of Riverton is a collection of linked short stories and novelettes inspired by the gravestones in a small Maine town. The stories are bound together by place and ancestry spanning over 200 hundred years. They un-bury an often shameful history of unexplained deaths and deeply held secrets in a town that is divided both economically and culturally. While fictional, the stories are grounded in the lore, rumors, and fables that were told to the author by parents, grandparents, and local storytellers.

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  Hester

  Laurie Lico Albanese MFA

  WHO IS THE REAL HESTER PRYNNE? Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband, Edward. An apothecary who has fallen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts have forced them to flee Glasgow for a fresh start in the New World. But only days after they've arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic––leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible. When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is a man haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows––while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. As the weeks pass and Edward's safe return grows increasingly unlikely, Nathaniel and Isobel grow closer and closer. Together, they are a muse and a dark storyteller; the enchanter and the enchanted. But which is which? In this sensuous and hypnotizing tale, a young immigrant woman grapples with our country's complicated past, and learns that America's ideas of freedom and liberty often fall short of their promise. Interwoven with Isobel and Nathaniel's story is a vivid interrogation of who gets to be a "real" American in the first half of the 19th century, a depiction of the early days of the Underground Railroad in New England, and atmospheric interstitials that capture the long history of "unusual" women being accused of witchcraft. Meticulously researched yet evocatively imagined, Laurie Lico Albanese's Hester is a timeless tale of art, ambition, and desire that examines the roots of female creative power and the men who try to shut it down.

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  Night of the Living Rez

  Morgan Talty

  Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Rez is a riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy.

  In twelve striking, luminescent stories, author Morgan Talty―with searing humor, abiding compassion, and deep insight―breathes life into tales of family and a community as they struggle with a painful past and an uncertain future. A boy unearths a jar that holds an old curse, which sets into motion his family’s unraveling; a man, while trying to swindle some pot from a dealer, discovers a friend passed out in the woods, his hair frozen into the snow; a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s projects the past onto her grandson; and two friends, inspired by Antiques Roadshow, attempt to rob the tribal museum for valuable root clubs.

  A collection that examines the consequences and merits of inheritance, Night of the Living Rez is an unforgettable portrayal of an Indigenous community and marks the arrival of a standout talent in contemporary fiction.

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  Gun Love

  Jennifer Clement MFA '13

  LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • “Fortified with wit and tenderness . . . Gun Love potently illuminates a puzzled land.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
  
  NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST FICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY TIME • SHORTLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE
  
  The searing, unforgettable story of a young girl’s resilience, by the award-winning author of Prayers for the Stolen
  
  Pearl’s mother took her away from her family just weeks after she was born, and drove off to central Florida determined to begin a new life for herself and her daughter–in the parking lot next to a trailer park. Pearl grew up in the front seat of their ’94 Mercury, while her mother lived in the back. Despite their hardships, mother and daughter both adjusted to life, making friends with the residents of the trailers and creating a deep connection to each other. All around them, Florida is populated with gun owners–those hunting alligators for sport, those who want to protect their families, and those who create a sense of danger.
  
  Written in a gorgeous lyric all its own, Gun Love is the story of a tough but optimistic young woman growing up in contemporary America, in the midst of its harrowing love affair with firearms.