IPPY Awards Gold Medal for Short Story Fiction
2020 Foreword Reviews INDIES Bronze Winner for Literary Fiction
Buzzfeed News, 15 Small Press Books To Kick Off Your 2020 Reading Season
Craft, New Books: February 2020
The Millions, February Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month) [T]aken as a whole,
Where You're All Going becomes an expansive book that reads similarly to Joan Silber's
Ideas of Heaven. In each of the novellas, Frank shows the intimate ways people are connected while exploring the distance that exists between them.
-15 Small Press Books To Kick Off Your 2020 Reading Season by Wendy J. Fox, Buzzfeed News Death looms in these four sparkling novellas-thus the book's sly title-but until then there's the wonder of life. Frank's subjects include fascinating friendships and complicated marriages, awful parties and odd enthusiasm. Bonus: song mentions that add up to a terrifically eclectic playlist.
-Kim Hubbard, People Magazine Frank's quartet of novellas follow ordinary people who are who are dealing with love, loss, loneliness, and the intimacies-small and large-that connect us all.
-February Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month), The Millions [L]ustrous, moving, and life-affirming. . . . The heartaching, worth-the-pain-of-living beauty of the world is a holy undertone. Making and appreciating art-several of the novellas offer their own soundtrack-is a channel to grasp meaning. We write our lives with 'no rough drafts allowed, and no revisions.' What it's about remains perpetually just out of reach. No one has the answer, but Frank's wisdom has lessons for us all.
-BooklistFrom the imagination of Joan Frank. . . winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction, come these tales that reveal the hidden motivations and desires of the soul.
-Alta, online and in print
Several years ago, I read the first of the novellas, 'Biting the Moon,' bound in this collection. I was blown away by the story of a woman remembering her lover, a film-music composer, after his death. On that day, I became a lifelong fan of Joan Frank's writing.
-The Quivering Pen The publication of [
Where You're All Going] from writer Joan Frank offers readers a not-to-be-missed opportunity to experience the range of her literary gifts. The four novellas... demonstrate the authors eye for observational and psychological detail.
-Coffee Spew Joan Frank's wonderful novellas are funny, edgy, poignant and true. Attuned to the predicaments of the slight-outsider, and of good people struggling to get by, Frank gives us characters dealing with love lost and love sustained, and the small essential intimacies that make up both. Her prose is vivid, her observations sharp, and everywhere music and song animate the conversation. You'll feel more alive when you read these stories, and hold closer to you the people you cherish.
-Sylvia Brownrigg Reading each of these vivid, joyful, lyrical novellas is an immersive, life-affirming experience. As she's done in her terrific previous books, Joan Frank offers her readers fully realized worlds and unforgettable characters. I felt alive and awake in the very best sense as I read these novellas-I loved every moment.
-Christine Sneed, author of The Virginity of Famous Men and Little-Known Facts Each of these novellas is as satisfying as a whole book, but what I really love is the way, together, they tell a much bigger story-about love and loyalty and family and fear and joy.
Where You're All Going is full beauty and bounty.
-Ramona Ausubel, author of Awayland and Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty Joan Frank has an uncanny ability to go deeply into character and with the lightest touch show us how divided we humans are in the most complicated matters of the heart.
Where You're All Going is a marvel.
-Ann Packer, NYT best-selling author of The Children's Crusade Every novella in this book is, in part, about music, from jazz to classical to Marvin Gaye. One could practically mark the first novella, 'staccato'; every paragraph begs to be read aloud, to be heard. The stories are, line after line, brimming with a brisk freshness.
-Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Willful Creatures A precise and exquisite writer. This book is a tour de force.
-Carol Sklenicka, author of Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life and Alice Adams: Portrait of a Writer 