Strivers and Other Stories - Softcover

Williams, Robert J

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1941551114 ISBN 13: 9781941551110

Publisher: Washington Writers' Publishing House, 2016

Synopsis

Set between the 1920s and the present day, STRIVERS AND OTHER STORIES explores a range of African-American and Southern voices reflecting characters striving towards their versions of the American dream. In 13 stories, we meet teachers and doctors, train porters and factory workers, soldiers and musicians; mothers, fathers, children and spouses; mentors and mentees. With a mix of humor and heart, satire and sentiment, this collection captures their everyday struggles for better lives and their hopes for promising futures.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

 
"Strivers is an impressive collection filled with memorable characters pushing against the limits imposed on them--by family, fate, racism, and their own flaws and aspirations. With insight and compassion, Williams offers thoughtful portraits of ordinary lives in these stories; in so doing, he presents a varied and vibrant gallery of Black middle-class life in the South. His prose is smart and subtle, and like his characters, it is fueled by a longing heart."  - Brendan Short, author of Dream City
 
"Time and again, I found myself drawn into the vortex of Robert Williams' irresistible stories.  Each of them is a kind of crucible in which the writer cracks open his characters, revealing them in surprising, moving and often funny ways.  Yet Strivers and Other Stories is more than the sum of its beautiful parts.  Over the whole of the collection Williams casts a wide net of compassion that holds the stories in proximity to each other, making them mean that much more."  -Tommy Hays, author of The Pleasure Was Mine and What I Came to Tell You              

About the Author:

Robert J. Williams was born in Augusta, Georgia. He is the recipient of four Larry Neal Writers' Awards given by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities for three of his short stories and one screenplay. Educated at Northwestern University and the University of Georgia's Grady Graduate School of Journalism and Mass Communications, he resides in Washington, D.C. where he has worked in digital marketing, advertising and web technology for over 20 years. He has been a participant in the Hurston/Wright Writers Conference at Howard University, the Voices of Nation's Arts Workshop at the University of San Francisco and most recently, was selected for the 2016 Callaloo Literary Journal of the African Diaspora Creative Writing Workshop at Oxford University. He is currently at work on a novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Washington Writers' Publishing House
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1941551114
• ISBN 13: 9781941551110
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 222