The Corner of East and Dreams

by Joan Connor

Overview

The Corner of East and Dreams is a collection of nineteen stories which are off-kilter in some way. The stories include re-tellings — Cassie Bunyan’s Yarn which gives a voice to Paul Bunyan’s wife; The Lion’s Honey which narrates the Biblical story of Samson and Delilah from the point-of-view of Samson’s savaged lock; The Missing Days of E.A.P. which imagines itself into the interstices of Poe’s mysterious death; The Unnaming, a metafictional reversal of the Edenic myth; and The Devil in Decline in which a defanged Satan speaks for himself. Aesthetically, the tales range from the social-realistic to cross-genre, from the comic to the somber, from the credible to the fully fantastic of I Married Yeti, from naturalist to fabulist – making every story a surprise.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781955062268
Publisher:	Running Wild Press
Publication date:	01/08/2024
Pages:	188
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Joan Connor is a former professor at Ohio University, Fairfield University's MFA Program, and the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast Program. She has published four collections of short fiction and one of personal essays. She is the recipient of an AWP award in short fiction, the Leapfrog Press award for adult fiction, the River Teeth award in nonfiction, a Pushcart Prize, and individual artists award from the Ohio Arts council.

Table of Contents

C O N T E N T S THE PAINBROKER 1 TENEBRAE 13 THE CORNER OF DREAMS 29 TATTOOS 36 THE UNNAMING 52 BABY I’ LL BE HOME FOR HALLOWEEN 56 HOW THE UNIVERSE WORKS (Modern Fables) I. 75 II. Lightning Strikes 78 A GIRL, A CAR, A BAR 80 CASSIE BUNYAN’ S YARN: A SHORT TALE 84 VERMONT TRILOGY City of Grass 89 II. Spooks 92 III. The Locked Room 93 I MARRIED YETI 95 AND THE VOICE OF THE TURTLE IS HEARD IN OUR LAND 101 RED PLANETS 112 THE OCTOGENARIAN 124 THE LION’ S HONEY Samson’s Hair 134 THEIR VOICES 140 THE MISSING DAYS OF E.A.P 147 THE WITCH’ S CURE 157 CROW LOVE 165 Crow Totem 167 Crow Nature 168 Crow Caucus 169 Crow Mercy 170 Wolf Play 171 THE THREE MINUTE LOVE STORY 172 THE DEVIL IN DECLINE 175 Acknowledgments 179 About Running Wild Press 181