The Big Impossible

THE BOOK: The Big Impossible: Novellas + Stories.

PUBLISHED IN: 2019

THE AUTHOR: Edward J. Delaney.

THE EDITOR: Ruth Greenstein,

THE PUBLISHER: Turtle Point Press, Brooklyn, NY.

SUMMARY: Stories and novellas ranging from the Irish-Catholic neighborhoods of Boston to the American West.

THE BACK STORY: This is a collection of work done over many years and published in various magazines and journals, from The Atlantic to small journals such as West Branch and the Cimarron Review.

WHY THIS TITLE?: It figures in one of the stories, as one of the characters suggests that it’s “the big impossible” trying to figure out how to lead one’s life.

WHY WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO READ IT? I’d like to think i binds a lot of pieces of our culture together, telling stories about varied people taking on the same challenges. Most of the people are neither privileged or of means, and they struggle to do their best.

REVIEW COMMENTS:

“The Big Impossible sets high standards for itself, not only in attempting to narrow down identity and Americana, but also the role of shorter fiction at large; and it exceeds even that. The stories told by Delaney showcase not only his skill as a writer, but his unending empathy for those looking for a home. Across setting, tone, intention, and outcome, Delaney succeeds in understanding that perhaps nothing is more American than that search for a place to belong.” (Chicago Review of Books)

“Busted men, usually from busted homes, populate this well-turned collection from the veteran Delaney (Follow the Sun, 2018, etc.). Delaney’s sensitivity and command are steady throughout.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“There is a real depth of feeling in these stories, all of which follow lives from their beginnings to their ends. “And then, in old age, the reckoning,” as he writes in “My Name is Percy Atkins.” These stories resonate with the reader, long after putting the book down.” (North of Oxford)

AUTHOR PROFILE: I’ve been an author, journalist, filmmaker, playwright, and educator. My books include the novels Broken Irish, Warp & Weft and Follow the Sun, and the short-story collections The Drowning and Other Stories and The Big Impossible: Novellas+Stories.

I started out as a newspaper reporter in the early 1980s, working at papers in Georgia, Florida and Colorado. I was a reporter at The Denver Post and a contributor to The Chicago Tribune, and in my time at newspapers I became more interested in telling the stories of people swept up in the events of the culture, rather than wanting to be around the powerful and important. That very naturally led me to fiction writing. In 1990, after some teaching stints at The University of Colorado and Colorado State University, I made the jump to academia and continued to do freelance journalism while working on fiction. My work has appeared regularly in The Atlantic and other magazines, and has appeared in Best American Short Stories and the O. Henry Prize collection. I was a 2008 National Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellow, winner of the 2005 PEN/Winship Award for Fiction for New England book of the year, winner of the Grand Prize at the 2012 New England Book Fair.

I’m a faculty member at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, where I edit the literary journal Mount Hope, where we try to give a platform to new authors and writers outside of the “writing world” of academia.

AUTHOR COMMENTS: Another step on the way of my journey as a writer, trying to tell stories of people worth giving voice to. I’ve never done autobiographical fiction.

SAMPLE CHAPTER: A sample of the title story is on Literary Hub.

TO BUY IT: Bookshop.org, Indiebound, Amazon, Barnes & noble, etc.

PRICE: Just a couple left on Amazon right now for a sale price of $1.48. Otherwise around $14.

CONTACT THE AUTHOR: I’m at edwardjdelaney dot org