Perry Glasser’s “Dangerous Places” wins Chandra Prize, Best Books 2009 Award
BkMk Press at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) will publish “Dangerous Places: Stories,” a short-story collection by Perry Glasser of Haverhill, Mass. on Nov. 30. “Dangerous Places” won BkMk Press’ G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction and the USABookNews.com Best Books 2009 Award for Short Story Fiction.
Fear and dread transform Glasser’s characters, who include an abused single mother, a female college student in New York and a retired leadership trainer. All the characters run but cannot escape the images of danger that threaten them.
The book has drawn advance praise from several fiction-writing luminaries.
“There is no showing off, no fancy footwork, no faking it,” said Gary Gildner, who selected “Dangerous Places” for the Chandra Prize. Gildner also is a past winner of the National Magazine Award for Fiction.
“The most dangerous places in ‘Dangerous Places?’ Between our ears, it turns out, and in our needy hearts,” wrote Lee K. Abbott.
Ron Carlson observed of Glasser and his characters: “He knows people. He understands the insistent magic of their ordinary dreams.”
Phillip Gerard wrote that “Glasser is that rare writer whose stories unfold with the precision of a Swiss watch,” and Ron Hansen called these stories “fabulous, funny, wildly different.”
Booklist calls these “finely crafted and original stories” and writes that Glasser’s characters “stumble on danger in the least likely places: grocery stores, shopping malls, backyards, and bedrooms.”
Perry Glasser has won the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award three times and the Boston Fiction Festival twice. Glasser is also the author of “Singing on the Titanic” and “Suspicious Origins,” which won the Minnesota Voices Award from New Rivers Press. His stories have appeared in such publications as Antioch Review, TriQuarterly and Ms. Magazine. A former public high school teacher in New York, he teaches at Salem State College in Massachusetts.
“Dangerous Places” (ISBN 978-1-1886157-69-9) is 170 pages, and the retail price is $16.95.
Founded in 1971, BkMk Press became part of UMKC in 1983. BkMk concentrates on publishing collections of poetry, short fiction and creative essays. Publishing six titles a year, BkMk Press has more than 100 titles in print. Assistance for the press has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency; UMKC; and private donations. For more information about BkMk Press and its titles, call (816) 235-2558 or email bkmk@umkc.edu.
The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), one of four University of Missouri campuses, is a public university serving more than 14,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. UMKC engages with the community and economy based on a four-part mission: life and health sciences; visual and performing arts; urban issues and education; and a vibrant learning and campus life experience.