I Was Trying to Describe What it Feels Like
New and Selected Stories
Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Short Stories, Literary
| Author: | Noy Holland | ISBN: | 9781619028937 |
| Publisher: | Counterpoint Press | Publication: | January 1, 2017 |
| Imprint: | Counterpoint | Language: | English |
| Author: | Noy Holland |
| ISBN: | 9781619028937 |
| Publisher: | Counterpoint Press |
| Publication: | January 1, 2017 |
| Imprint: | Counterpoint |
| Language: | English |
“By turns earthy, reverent, poetic, and wry, these stories . . . make you feel what it feels like . . . to be fully alive in the world.” —Oprah.com
In the twenty years since her first short story collection, The Spectacle of the Body, Noy Holland has become a singular presence in American writing—a writer who excels and excites, her prose described as unsettling and acutely wrought, rhythmic and lyrically condensed. Following the publication of Bird, her first novel, *I Was Trying to Describe What It Feels Like *is a gathering of stories, the majority of which have never before been published in book form. Set on two continents and ranging in length from a single page to a novella, these stories beguile and disrupt; they remind us of the reach of our compassion and of the dazzling possibilities of language.
“I Was Trying to Describe What It Feels Like,” from which the collection takes its title, is part love song, part fever dream—a voice demanding the ecstatic. Holland’s stories do not indulge in easy emotions, and they keep to the blessedly blurred frontier between poetry and prose.
Longlisted for the Story Prize
Winner of the 2018 Katherine Anne Porter Award in Literature
“These new and selected stories testify to the fact that there are still fine short story writers out there, doing the hard job of serious literary production in our age of tweets and memes.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A strong collection . . . Holland’s writing is by turns hallucinatory, bizarre, and maddening in the best possible way.” —NPR
“A treasure trove . . . Holland’s prose makes the familiar seems strange and the strange seem familiar.” —Elle
“By turns earthy, reverent, poetic, and wry, these stories . . . make you feel what it feels like . . . to be fully alive in the world.” —Oprah.com
In the twenty years since her first short story collection, The Spectacle of the Body, Noy Holland has become a singular presence in American writing—a writer who excels and excites, her prose described as unsettling and acutely wrought, rhythmic and lyrically condensed. Following the publication of Bird, her first novel, *I Was Trying to Describe What It Feels Like *is a gathering of stories, the majority of which have never before been published in book form. Set on two continents and ranging in length from a single page to a novella, these stories beguile and disrupt; they remind us of the reach of our compassion and of the dazzling possibilities of language.
“I Was Trying to Describe What It Feels Like,” from which the collection takes its title, is part love song, part fever dream—a voice demanding the ecstatic. Holland’s stories do not indulge in easy emotions, and they keep to the blessedly blurred frontier between poetry and prose.
Longlisted for the Story Prize
Winner of the 2018 Katherine Anne Porter Award in Literature
“These new and selected stories testify to the fact that there are still fine short story writers out there, doing the hard job of serious literary production in our age of tweets and memes.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A strong collection . . . Holland’s writing is by turns hallucinatory, bizarre, and maddening in the best possible way.” —NPR
“A treasure trove . . . Holland’s prose makes the familiar seems strange and the strange seem familiar.” —Elle
