The old neighborhood was the place that Joe Mackall left. It was a place where everyone’s parents worked at the factory at the dead end of the street, where the Catholic church operated like a religious city hall, and where he grew up vowing to get out as soon as he could and to shed his blue-collar beginnings and failed, flawed religion. When the mysterious death of a childhood friend draws him back to the last street before Cleveland, however, he discovers that there is more to “old haunts� than mere words—and more to severing one’s roots than just getting away. The Last Street Before Cleveland chronicles Mackall’s descent into his past: the story of how, looking for answers about his lost friend, he stumbles onto larger questions about himself. With clear-eyed candor, Mackall describes the resurfacing of dormant demons, the opening of the old chasms of depression and addiction, and the discovery, at rock bottom, of a flickering faith that casts a surprising light over everything that has come before. Mackall’s is, finally, a story about life—lived and lost, given and earned.      

Nationally recognized River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative has published a host of new and significant voices in creative nonfiction - including essays, memoir, and literary journalism - since 1999. To celebrate twenty years of introducing talented new writers to readers and publishing great nonfiction, the founding editors, Joe Mackall and Daniel W. Lehman, have selected their all-time favorite essays published in River Teeth in this stunning collection. Essays include up-and-coming authors as well as luminaries such as Ann Hood, Lee Martin, Chris Offutt, Angela Morales, Brenda Miller, Judith Kitchen, Ted Kooser, and Andrew Dubus III. River Teeth: Twenty Years of Creative Nonfiction further includes a thoughtful foreword by Robert Atwan that illuminates the importance, breadth, and reach of the journal and shows the diversity of nonfiction writing available in the twenty-first century. A trailblazing publication since its inception, River Teeth continues to share the important work of contemporary writers and will thrive for years to come.