Colorado Book Award in short story collections winner
From a lightning death on an isolated peak to the intrigues of a small town orchestra, the glimmering stories in this debut collection explore how nature鈥攄amaged, 铿乪rce, and unpredictable鈥攚orms its way into our lives. Here moths steal babies, a creek seduces a lonely suburban mother, and the priorities of a passionate conservationist are thrown into confusion after the death of her son. Over and over, the natural world reveals itself to be unknowable, especially to the people who study it most. These tales of scientists, nurses, and 铿乺e铿乬hters catalog the loneliness within families, betrayals between friends, and the recurring song of regret and grief.
鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 help but think of Andrea Barrett when I read this collection with all its funny, inventive stories in which the natural world and humanity collide with each other. There鈥檚 such careful attention paid in these stories, to people and the environment alike.鈥濃擟armen Maria Machado, judge, 2019 海角乱伦社区Short Fiction Award
鈥淧opulated with all manner of wild animals, endangered species, and 铿俛wed people, the endlessly readable stories in Not A Thing to Comfort You remind me of camp铿乺e ranger talks, if the rangers are Annie Proulx or Raymond Carver and the untended camp铿乺e burns down an entire forest. Wortman-Wunder now certainly enters the ranks of our 铿乶est naturalist writers, yet what gives these stories their remarkable power and depth is her lifetime of meticulous 铿乪ld work on the always unpredictable human heart.鈥濃擩ustin Hocking, author, The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld: A Memoir
鈥淓mily Wortman-Wunder鈥檚 stunning stories demand our attention. Graceful in style, bountiful in their knowledge of the natural world, they move e铿ortlessly from Beethoven concertos to bear hibernacula, from suburban homes to rural trailers. These stories don鈥檛 mind getting their hands dirty excavating secrets, but they just as painstakingly illuminate lives in search of love and connection. A rich and a铿ecting collection.鈥濃擲teven Schwartz, author, Madagascar: New and Selected Stories
鈥Not a Thing to Comfort You is a virtuosic debut collection of fiction. This book reminded me why I love short stories.鈥濃擲teven Church, author, I鈥檓 Just Getting to the Disturbing Part: On Work, Fear, and Fatherhood
鈥淭here鈥檚 a sleight-of-hand magic in Not a Thing to Comfort You. Emily Wortman-Wunder鈥檚 characters are palpable and complex, and her psychological insights rival the likes of Jonathan Franzen and Jane Smiley. Yet she accomplishes this in a few pages of story, rather than a novel. Don鈥檛 come to this book seeking sentimentality or tired tropes. Wortman-Wunder鈥檚 voice and her sensibility are fresh, sometimes alarming, and always deeply satisfying.鈥濃擝K Loren, author, Theft: A Novel
2020 Colorado Book Award Winner, Short Story Collection
