{"title":"Sharon Solwitz","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"blood-and-milk-book-sharon-solwitz-9781889330020","title":"Blood and Milk","description":"Sharon Solwitz's literary prizes include a Pushcart Prize, the Dan Curley Award, the Tara Fellowship in Short Fiction (from the Heekin Foundation), the Katherine Anne Porter Fiction Prize, the Nelson Algren Prize (three times), the Hemmingway Days Festival Prize, as well as awards and fellowships from the Kansas and Illinois Arts Councils. Her fiction has appeared in magazines like Mademoisclle, Ploughshares, American Short Fiction, and TriQuarterly. One of her stories was dramatized in the Stories-on-Stage series at the Organic Theater in Chicago. Another was selected for radio broadcast in the \"Sound of Writing\" series. She currently teaches creative writing at Loyola University in Chicago and to public-school students as an Artist-in-Education, She edits Another Chicago Magazines with her husband, poet Barry Silesky, and takes care of their ten-year-old twin boys.\"Like emotional spelunkers, the women in Sharon Solwitz's first collection of stories tirelessly explore the dark corners of their personal relationships, bravely feeling their way along the unlighted passageways connecting husbands, wives, lovers, parents, and children. A flair for dark comedy and the ability to turn on a dime are prized qualities for these unpredictable characters; time and again, their intrepid investigations lead them into uncharted territory where bizarre dramatic action seems to be the only possible move. Solwitz's fine-toothed examinations of complex emotional states are dead on, and she has a sharp eye for details. . . . Keeping her narratives at a steady simmer, she ponders the mysteries of human intimacy, turning up the flame at the last minute for a sudden blast of revelatory action. . . . [T]he results are absorbing, a well-wrought reminder that no matter how peculiar the circumstances, we all have more in common than we think.\"-The New York Times Book Review","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50393350635793,"sku":"CIN1889330027G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52478841389329,"sku":"NLS9781889330020","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1889330027.jpg?v=1751346937"},{"product_id":"once-in-lourdes-book-sharon-solwitz-9780812989236","title":"Once, In Lourdes","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn the turbulent summer of 1968, four high school friends make a pact that will change their lives forever.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e As the Vietnam War rages overseas, four friends make a vow. For the next two weeks, they will live for each other and for each day. Then, at the end of the two weeks, they will sacrifice themselves on the altar of their friendship. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Loyal Kay, our narrator, dreams of being an artist and escaping her stifling family--the stepmother and stepsister she gained after her mother's early death, and the father she no longer feels she knows. As she struggles with her weight, her schoolwork, and her longing for her mother, she feels loyalty only to her three friends, determined to keep their group together at any cost. Brilliant, charismatic CJ appears to have everything--though even those closest to him can't see him as he really is. Steady, quiet Saint wants to do right by everyone, trying not to let his emotions destroy himself and those around him. And beautiful Vera's family secrets are too dark to share, even with her closest friends; caught in a web of family dysfunction, she can only hope the others won't get tangled up in the danger she senses around her. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In the two-week span in which the novel takes place, during the summer before their senior year of high school, the lives of Kay, CJ, Saint, and Vera will change beyond their expectations, and what they gain and lose will determine the novel's outcome. \u003ci\u003eOnce, in Lourdes\u003c\/i\u003e is a gripping, haunting novel about the power of teenage bonds, the story of four young people who will win your heart and transport you back to your own high school years. As the heady 1960s shift the ground beneath their feet, all of them must face who they are--and who they want to be. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eOnce, in Lourdes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e After writing a spate of short stories,  Sharon Solwitz] returns to the longer form with a ravishing sense of place . . . and a heightened, almost surreal, feel for how intense emotions alter our perception of the world, especially in youth. Solwitz's surging, many-threaded, complexly insightful tale dramatizes not only personal crises, but also the violence of the infamous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. Timely and timeless.\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhat makes \u003ci\u003eOnce, in Lourdes\u003c\/i\u003e such a moving read is how deeply and finely Sharon Solwitz has observed and portrayed her characters. They are recognizable teenagers with recognizable desires and miseries and hardships, but they are so well rendered in their particulars that we follow them less and less as familiar types and more and more as the actual friends with whom we attempt to struggle through this part of life, making promises and pacts, breaking and keeping them, living and dying by them.\u003cb\u003e--Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eTinkers \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Enon\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e This is a story that reads achingly true to young angst, then, now, and always. It's an achievement of remarkable empathy--and gorgeous prose.\u003cb\u003e--Janet Burroway, author of \u003ci\u003eRaw Silk \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Writing Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Sharon Solwitz has an ear so attuned to teen speech, teen humor, and, finally and most convincingly, teen angst that her novel crackles with urgency. She follows the rise and fall of adolescent moods, patient with their extremes and sympathetic to the neediness her characters struggle to hide. \u003ci\u003eOnce, in Lourdes\u003c\/i\u003e will make you think you're eavesdropping on what you're not supposed to hear.\u003cb\u003e--Rosellen Brown, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of\u003ci\u003e Before and After\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52100378394897,"sku":"CIN0812989236G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53072388227345,"sku":"CIN0812989236VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780812989236.jpg?v=1757089391"},{"product_id":"bloody-mary-book-sharon-solwitz-9781889330938","title":"Bloody Mary","description":"Debut novel by National Jewish Book Award finalist and longtime Sarabande author.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52478520918289,"sku":"NLS9781889330938","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53363617595665,"sku":"CIN1889330930VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781889330938.jpg?v=1759847305"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-sharon-solwitz.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}