Amy L. Clark

When her brother-in-law dies, Evey and her husband, Sebastian, must return to their hometown in Maine to attend the funeral. They end up at the Palais Royale-where Evey spent many drunken nights before leaving town, and an unstable first husband, five years ago-on the night before the bar closes its doors forever. Amid a vivid tapestry of memorable townspeople in this tightly-woven novel, Evey ventures through her troubled personal history and tries to navigate an uncertain future.

The four chapbooks collected in A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness revel in the succinctness of their form. Three of them finalists and one of them the winner of the first annual short short chapbook contest held by Rose Metal Press, each author explores the underlying tension anchored beneath each story of 1,000 words or less. These stories are peculiar; they resonate with restlessness. They are deft, they are gritty, and they are lyrical. Laughter, Applause. Laughter, Music, Applause by Kathy Fish, Wanting by Amy L. Clark, Sixteen Miles Outside of Phoenix by Elizabeth Ellen, and The Sky Is a Well by Claudia Smith combine four multi-layered portrayals of beautiful uneasiness into a collection rich with wit, grace, and originality. With an introduction by Pia Z. Ehrhardt.