World Like A Knife (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) - Hardcover

Akins, Ms. Ellen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801842883 ISBN 13: 9780801842887

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991

Synopsis

'World Like A Knife': It cuts both ways. These are the stories of people whose perception, dulled by the everyday or honed by the extraordinary event, have the power to set them free or send them spinning out of control.

About this title

About the Author:

Ellen Akins is the author of the novels Home Movie, Little Woman, Public Life, and Hometown Brew, and the short story collection World Like a Knife. She has published short stories in The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, The Missouri Review, and The Southwest Review, which (the last two) awarded her their biennial short fiction awards. Her work has also appeared in online publications such as Serving House Journal. She has written reviews for numerous publications and is a regular contributor to The Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Akins is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Whiting Foundation, the Ingram-Merrill Foundation, the National Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Wisconsin Arts Board. She offers coaching, editing, and critiquing services via email through the Loft Literary Center.

From Library Journal:

Wisconsin writer Akins pulls no punches in these hard-hitting stories, unabashedly describing awful scenes of rape, brutality, and incest. "Arriving in the Dark," the longest and most difficult of the ten, is the grim story of a boy "raped by his father." When the man dies while atop him, the son turns to his mother for comfort. Their female offspring, "a nameless wild thing," is in turn subjected to abuse and privation. While many of her female characters are mute or disfigured, as in "Her Book," Akins's male characters are often violent and/or semi-moronic. Her stories effectively explore the varying levels of communication--especially nonverbal--and probe the depths of the physical and psychic violence potential in relationships stripped to the baser elements. She finds, however, a kind of richness and dignity there, as in the profound "Something You Won't Understand." These gritty stories are recommended for large fiction collections.
- Ron Antonucci, Hudson Lib. & Historical Soc . , Ohio
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0801842883
• ISBN 13: 9780801842887
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144