Chicago Heat and Other Stories [Hardcover]

Having written more than eight novels, includingMy AmputationsandDirty Bird Blues,alongside a dozen books of poetry,Chicago Heat and Other Storiesis Clarence Majors second work of short fiction and first book with Green Writers Press.

Chicago Heat and Other Storiesemploys a gorgeous purity and simplicity of language in a series of masterful stories exploring human interaction. Each narrative voice comes forward all at once, individual and complete, without obstacle or complication, enabling the reader to see the characters and feel their emotions. Major does not shy away from the bitter or the harsh; we get to hear it all. Like paint on an easel he blends lyric harmony with moxie and the blunt with the beautiful. The imagery is completely accessible and generously given. Toni Morrison comes to mind. His work is like jewels.

Chicago Heat and Other Storiesemploys a gorgeous purity and simplicity of language in a series of masterful stories exploring human interaction. Each narrative voice comes forward all at once, individual and complete, without obstacle or complication, enabling the reader to see the characters and feel their emotions. Major does not shy away from the bitter or the harsh; we get to hear it all. Like paint on an easel he blends lyric harmony with moxie and the blunt with the beautiful. The imagery is completely accessible and generously given. Toni Morrison comes to mind. His work is like jewels.

Clarence Major is a prizewinning short story writer, novelist, poet and painter.  As a finalist for the National Book Award he won a Bronze Medal for his bookConfigurations: New and Selected Poems 1958-1998.  Major was a finalist for the Los Angeles Book Critics Prize and The Prix Maurice Coindreau in France. He is the recipient of The Western States Book Award, The National Council on The Arts Award, a New York Cultural Foundation Award, The Stephen Henderson Poetry Award for Outstanló.