CUT ROAD: stories

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Shortlisted for the Kerry Schooley Book Award

 

Shortlisted for the ReLit Award

Containing a rich mix of acclaimed and award-winning stories, CUT ROAD is a masterful exploration of the loss and scars that conflict leaves behind. Where soldiers abandon too much of themselves in war zones, parents relinquish control of their children, and friends struggle with change and tragedy. From the working soul struggling with grief to the wounded veteran seeking redemption in a coffee shop to the sweaty tree-planter fleeing a burning forest, in this collection no one—least of all the reader—is left unscathed.

 

Stories in this collection have won:

THE BRISTOL SHORT STORY PRIZE
THE LUSH TRIUMPHANT LITERARY AWARD
THE FIDDLEHEAD BEST SHORT STORY AWARD
THE WRITER MAGAZINE'S "OUR DARKEST HOUR" PRIZE
THE FREDA WALDON FICTION AWARD
THE SHORT WORKS PRIZE

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“Having shown, in his novels, what he can do with fabulism, Brent VanStaalduinen gives us a debut collection anchored in real human experience. With immediacy and emotion, CUT ROAD introduces us to characters facing the uncertainties of life in our present moment. The prose is detailed and evocative, the storytelling complex and humane. These are strong, tempered visions of the world, crafted with skill and care. ”

— J.R. McConvey, author of DIFFERENT BEASTS 

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“Brent van Staalduinen opens a door onto sixteen different views of the world, then closes that door behind us leaving a window – not always where we expect a window to be – and through that opening we see life (sometimes friendly, other times formal) from a new vantage. Cut Road reminds us how people, from a bullet-proof witness box, testify to a world that rarely listens.”

— Michael Winter, author of INTO THE BLIZZARD

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“Rangy and raw, bold and luminous...these stories are so perfectly detailed—so painfully precise—in their ability to bring you into the lives and minds of his characters...van Staalduinen [writes] with surgical insight....world-expanding...unforgettable...[a] remarkable book.”

— Hollay Ghadery, author of FUSE​​​​