Briefly Knocked Unconscious By A Low-Flying Duck

Essay Anthology
2^nd Story Collective

“A whole world retold. Life-saving. Hopeful . . . They really know how to tell a story.”
—Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina

Stellar Reviews!

"The stories are endlessly relatable and their tellers are true masters of the craft, able to make you laugh, make you cry, and make you want to do it all over again once you’ve finished. This collection will demand, and receive, return trips from its readers." – Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Today, short personal essays are a mainstay on the airways, the web, and in theaters and bars across the country. This anthology brings the vibrant oral tradition to the page through the work of 2^nd Story, a Chicago-based collective of story-makers and story-lovers working to build community through storytelling. We culled through ten years of archived performances to select the twenty-three essays presented in this collection. Each was adapted from the stage to the page.

A Vacation
on the Island of Ex-Boyfriends

Stories
Stacy Bierlein

Stellar Reviews!

“Stellar Collection of Heady and Affecting Stories.”
– Donna Seaman, Booklist

“Memorable and engaging collection--a trip readers will want to take again and again.” – Publishers Weekly

From the mysterious island in the Atlantic to the crowded highways of Los Angeles; from the Charles Bridge in Prague, to the temples in Luxor and the most remote regions of the Myanmar peninsula, Bierlein's characters are women of dazzling ironies and introspections, always in motion and trusting in love, even when it remains out of reach.

The Temple of Air

Stories
Patricia Ann McNair

Winner: Chicago Writers Association
Winner: 2012 Devil's Kitchen Reading Award
Finalist: Society of Midland Authors

“The stories in The Temple of Air navigate deftly between the everyday and the disturbing, the prosaic and the poetic.” —New City

"This is a beautiful book, intense and original." — Audrey Niffenegger

From the teenagers who witness a tragedy at a carnival to the twins who run the local ice cream parlor, each of the eleven linked stories in Patricia Ann McNair’s debut collection gives you a glimpse of life in the small town of New Hope.

College Acceleration:
Innovating Through The New American Research High School

Eric J. Ban Ed.D.

"A Book On Education Worth Reading." —Morton J. Marcus, Reporter-Times.com

New Nonfiction for High School Transformation. A co-publication with the Forum on Education at Indiana University.