Literary Nonfiction. This is an inspiring book about writing and--more unusually--a book that honors ambition, that idiosyncratic drive that compels writers and other artists to action despite every kind of obstacle. Upton explores forces that threaten our ability to fulfill the most daring aspirations, and she examines ambition's adjuncts, including failure, boredom, and purity, offering a provocative antidote: obsession. Ultimately Upton argues for a new perception of literary art as "a good secret" for our time, when our interior lives and our imaginations are under threat.

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2014 Best New Fiction of May 2014, Typographical Era Alternately chilling, funny, devastating, and hopeful, these 17 stories introduce us to a theater critic who winds up in a hot tub with the actress he routinely savages in reviews; a biographer who struggles to discover why a novelist stopped writing; a student who contends with her predatory professor; and the startling scenario of the last satyr meeting his last woman. Writer-in-residence and a professor of English at Lafayette College, Lee Upton is author of twelve books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Poignant, exquisite, and endlessly witty - Kirkus Review (Starred Review) ""People, the species defies logic!"" reflects the protagonist of one of the dazzling, intricate stories in Visitations. In this latest collection from Lee Upton, characters navigate often bewildering situations, from the homeschooled girl trying to communicate telepathically with an injured man she finds on the beach to the experimental theater troupe (called the Community Playas) composed primarily of actors the story's narrator has wronged or been wronged by. Upton's stories frequently draw inspiration from books, books as art objects or lost objects, as inspiration or points of contention. ""Night Walkers"" tells the story of the world's laziest book club, while ""A Story's End"" follows a woman's search for the last book read by her mother before her sudden death. Elsewhere, the ghosts of literature and writers past haunt the characters' present: ""The Tell-All Heart"" sees a woman falling in love with Edgar Allan Poe's discarded suit, and an unruly, unpredictable shadow creeps in a child's window to demand that he cut off the other hand of Captain Hook in ""A Shadow."" In the surreal yet playful tradition of Karen Russell and George Saunders, Visitations brings together seventeen incandescent short stories from a writer at the height of her powers.

Literary Nonfiction. This is an inspiring book about writing and--more unusually--a book that honors ambition, that idiosyncratic drive that compels writers and other artists to action despite every kind of obstacle. Upton explores forces that threaten our ability to fulfill the most daring aspirations, and she examines ambition's adjuncts, including failure, boredom, and purity, offering a provocative antidote: obsession. Ultimately Upton argues for a new perception of literary art as "a good secret" for our time, when our interior lives and our imaginations are under threat.