Sharon Solwitz's collection of stories, Blood and Milk, won the Carl Sandburg Prize from Friends of
the Chicago Public Library, the prize for adult fiction from the Society of Midland Authors, and was a finalist
for the National Jewish Book Award. Awards for her individual stories, published in such magazines as
TriQuarterly
,
Mademoiselle
, and
Ploughshares
, include the Pushcart Prize, the Katherine Anne Porter Prize, the Nelson Algren, and first
prize from
Moment Magazine
and the American Literary Review. A story of hers was reprinted in Best American Short
Stories 2012 and another was selected for
Best American Short Stories 2016
. She teaches fiction at Purdue University and lives in Chicago with her husband, poet
Barry Silesky.
Her novel Once, in Lourdes is now available from Random House (Spiegel and Grau)
“[In]
Blood and Milk
, Sharon Solwitz’s extraordinary first collection of short stories… her characters
are brave, vulnerable, funny and totally recognizable. Reading the intimate details of their struggles—against
breast cancer, parental violence, loneliness, adultery—is like snooping in the diaries of soldiers.”
"Solwitz's debut collection is trenchant and unnerving. She specializes in dislocation, dysfunction, and distress as she
writes about the imperfect emotional fit between men and women, cultural displacement, and madness both
personal and societal. . . . Indeed, as Solwitz traces the jagged edges of our collective soul, she reminds
us that even home can become a foreign country."
“Women who are prickly, sharp-witted, and high-strung, who tend to quip about their emotional pain and to act self-destructively,
are the protagonists of the 11 fine short stories in Solwitz’s first collection. . . . Most achieve insights
the hard way—after independent, even rash actions that sometimes bring pain.”
"A flair for dark comedy and the ability to turn on a dime are prized qualities for these unpredictable characters; time
and again, their intrepid investigations lead them into uncharted territory where bizarre dramatic action
seems to be the only possible move. Solwitz's fine-toothed examinations of complex emotional states are
dead on. . . . "
“Sharon Solwitz’s first collection of short stories entertains, provokes, and haunts. . . . Readers wishing to race through
the stories and simply enjoy them for their narrative style will be satisfied. Those who spend a little
more time analyzing the recurring elements will find even more pleasure.”
"Sharon Solwitz has been winning short story prizes for years—it's about time we get to see all her characters gathered between
covers. They are a lively and challenging crowd, full of intelligence, charm, and tendencies toward self-destruction
and self-realization that make them stunningly recognizable. Their complex lives pose emotional and moral
quandaries hard to dismiss and hard to put behind us at stories' end. Solwitz has wit, passion, and the
remarkable ventriloquial skill to throw interior voices we might never otherwise hear."
After her debut with the widely praised stories in Blood and Milk, Sharon Solwitz offers up her first, darkly radiant, full-length
novel. Bloody Mary, which takes its title from the childhood game, tells the story of socially adept, 12-year-old
Hadley and her protective mother. They live a privileged life in the Chicago neighborhood of Lakeview,
but soon find themselves in a state of chaos and flux.
This astonishing novel dives deep into the minds and bodies of four teenagers at the height of the sixties. Self-loathing
Kay, ethereal but deformed Vera, precariously balanced CJ and stoic Saint are self-declared outcasts from
what passes for normal in their school and families. Bonding through sexual awakening and confusion, love
of each other and dismissal of the world’s intrusion on their freedom, the 4Ever friends decide on a suicide
pact – and the reader is pulled into their intensity, on tenterhooks to find out who, how, and whether
they will carry out their pledge. This is a story that reads achingly true to young angst, then, now and
always. It's an achievement of remarkable empathy – and gorgeous prose.
Sharon Solwitz has an ear so attuned to teen-speech, teen-humor and, finally and most convincingly, teen-angst
that her novel crackles with urgency. She follows the rise and fall of adolescent moods, patient with their
extremes and sympathetic to the neediness they struggle to hide. Once, in Lourdes will make you think you’re
eavesdropping on what you’re not supposed to hear.
“What makes Once, In Lourdes such a moving read is how deeply and finely the author has observed and portrayed
her characters. They are recognizable teenagers with recognizable desires and miseries and hardships, but
they are so well rendered in their particulars that we follow them less and less as familiar types and
more and more as the actual friends with whom we attempt to struggle through this part of life, making
promises and pacts, breaking and keeping them, living and dying by them.”
