The Seven Stages of Anger and Other Stories in the first winner of the Press 53 Award for Short Fiction, selected by Kevin Morgan Watson, Publisher, and Christine Norris, Fiction Editor. Carol Guess, author of Darling Endangered and Doll Studies: Forensics, says, "What happens when a still life speaks? Wendy J. Fox invites us to eavesdrop. These beautiful, lyrical stories describe ordinary lives: speckled eggshells, creeping vines. Heres the threat of fire out east and endless rain when the map meets Seattle. Here are characters so real you know them already. Theyve misplaced your keys and...

Laura Clarey is unemployed and frustrated when her husband proposes a deal: take a solo vacation to recharge. When she accepts, this wife and mother of one has no way of knowing how it will upend her life; away from her family, she must face the failures of her marriage, the people of her past, and the decisions she has made that haunt her. It is not the first time Laura has run, and as she embarks on her holiday to Turkey, she is emboldened so much that she skips her flight home and boards a bus to the interior of the country, where she will stay for another six months. She tries to keep a...