Carrying the Torch: Stories (Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction) - Hardcover

"Brock Clarke's latest short story collection is his most compelling, balanced, and well-executed offering to date... Carrying the Torch is above all a series of earned moments that always feel genuine. Undoubtedly, this collection cements Clarke's place among the exciting new voices in American fiction."-Lydia Wilkes, Indiana Review -- Lydia Wilkes Indiana Review "It takes a uniquely sympathetic vision to render contemporary suburban America without sentimentality or condescension, and Clarke has it. The stories in Carrying the Torch are full of sympathy-complex, hard-won, and real."-Matthew Purdy, Iron Horse Literary Review -- Matthew Purdy Iron Horse Literary Review "There exist but a few undeniable truths in regards to writing short stories, I believe. Any forthcoming textbook needs to include Carrying the Torch in the 'Make the Miraculous Seem Everyday, the Everyday Miraculous' chapter. Brock Clarke's stories are exquisitely smart and funny and honest. I promise that these characters will pull you into their lives faster than a junkyard magnet attracts paper clips. Brock Clarke's a writer's writer."-George Singleton, author of Why Dogs Chase Cars -- George Singleton "Nobody carries the torch passed by John Cheever more ably and wittily than Brock Clarke in these funny, dark, and knowing stories."-David Gates, author of Jernigan and The Wonders of the Invisible World -- David Gates

Brock Clarke is an assistant professor of English at the University of Cincinnati. He is the author of the novel The Ordinary White Boy and of What We Won't Do, a short story collection that won the 2002 Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction and most recently, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England.