Staten Island Stories
Description
A fresh, compelling collection of stories by a serious new voice on the literary scene.
Winner of the Hornblower Award by the New York Society Library, Honorable Mention for the International Latino Book Awards: Best Collection of Short Stories by Empowering Latino Futures
New York City's Staten Island is often described as the forgotten borough. But with Staten Island Stories, Claire Jimenez shines a spotlight on the imagined lives of the islanders. Inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, this collection of loosely linked tragicomic short stories travels across time to explore defining moments in the island's history, from the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash and the New York City blackout to the growing opioid and heroin crisis, Eric Garner's murder, and the 2016 presidential election.
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About the Author
A longtime Staten Islander, Claire Jimenez is a PhD student in English with a concentration in ethnic studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She received her BA in English from Colby College and her MFA in creative writing from Vanderbilt University. Her fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in BOAAT, New Madrid, Afro-Hispanic Review, Pank, el roommate, The Toast, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications.
Reviews
"These stories are deeply grounded in a particular place and community but will resonate with readers everywhere... Her prose, especially the dialogue, snaps with authentic immediacy... Staten Island Stories concerns ugly times and circumstances, but the people and the stories are beautiful."
--Ellen Prentiss Campbell "New York Journal of Books ""Jimenez's contemporary take offers a rare view of New York City's southernmost borough, Staten Island. Though most people's perception of Staten Island might be shaped by headlines, Jimenez labors to show the vibrant communities within it while addressing the racial tensions that placed Staten Island on the map."
--Rigoberto González "NBC News ""Though Jimenez's characteristic wit and directness come through in each piece, the voices themselves remain unique--original and distinct to the human beings whose difficulties they embody."
--Rebecca Bernard "American Literary Review ""Without moralizing and through the thorny, everyday lives of Staten Islanders, or at least a particular subset of them, the book addresses in subtle ways the terrors in our society... In these first-person narratives, the reader doesn't just observe, but joins the characters in their search for autonomy and recognition as human beings, a search carried by prose that captures the complexities of inner fears and the outer behaviors that attempt to mask them."
--Donna Miscolta "Seattle Review of Books ""Jimenez's tough but compassionate voice supports us through the struggles of fully human characters living through the problems of addiction, racism, poverty, and neglect."
--Joy Ramirez "Chapter 16 "
