Like a lot of Americans, Steve Almond spent the weeks after the 2016 election lying awake, in a state of dread and bewilderment. The problem wasn't just the election, but the fact that nobody could explain, in any sort of coherent way, why America had elected a cruel, corrupt, and incompetent man to the Presidency. Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to Our Country is Almond's effort to make sense of our historical moment, to connect certain dots that go unconnected amid the deluge of hot takes and think pieces. Almond looks to literary voices-from Melville to Orwell, from Bradbury to Baldwin-to help explain the roots of our moral erosion as a people. The book argues that Trumpism is a bad outcome arising directly from the bad stories we tell ourselves. To understand how we got here, we have to confront our cultural delusions: our obsession with entertainment, sports, and political parody, the degeneration of our free press into a for-profit industry, our enduring pathologies of race, class, immigration, and tribalism. Bad Stories is a lamentation aimed at providing clarity. It's the book you can pass along to an anguished fellow traveler with the promise, This will help you understand what the hell happened to our country.

Steve Almond's collection My Life in Heavy Metal presents twelve passion-fueled stories (including his Pushcart Prize-winning story "The Pass") that take a clear-eyed view of relationships between young men and women who have come of age in an era without innocence. These are powerful and resonant stories of love and lust, that bring to life a generation desperately searching for connection in a fragmented world. In the title story, an El Paso newspaper clerk assigned to review the heavy metal bands playing local arenas is drawn in by the primal music, fueling a torrid affair with a Mexican-American woman that will change him forever. In "Geek Player, Love Slayer," a thirty-three-year-old woman harbors a secret crush on the young computer repairman in her office-until her ardor is unleashed at an after-work party, with unexpected consequences. In "Valentino," two teenagers spending their last summer together before heading off to college experience a sexual awakening inspired by the romantic legend of a movie star from long ago. By turn tender and raw, visceral and other-worldly, the stories of My Life in Heavy Metal capture the moments when the fires of passion burn over and subside into embers of pain and longing. It is a dazzling debut by a vibrant new writer.

"An eclectic and often riveting collection of essays. Some of the most celebrated contemporary writers eloquently explore the idea of risk taking, risk that shakes us out of apathy and ignites both deeply personal change and broader social transformation." -Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns "Dedicated to the People of Darfur gathers an array of voices on the subject of risk: whether it's the smaller daily risks of creativity and love or the terrors of facing wartime violence. The book moves nimbly from hilarious to somber and back again, in a richly varied and thoughtful exploration of the human condition." -Michelle Wildgen, author of But Not For Long and You're Not You "Formidable, inspiring, beautiful." -Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao In Dedicated to the People of Darfur: Writings on Fear, Risk, and Hope, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, a gallery of O. Henry award recipients, and many best-selling authors come together to share personal and compelling stories that celebrate the glories gained from taking risks, breaking down barriers, and overcoming obstacles. Not too long ago, as struggling graduate students, Luke and Jennifer Reynolds conceived this uniquely themed volume as a way to raise funds to support ending the genocide in Darfur. Some people carry signs, others make speeches, many take action. What is most enlightening about this book is that it extends beyond words and ideas, into a tangible effort to effect change. To this end, all royalties from the sales of Dedicated to the People of Darfur: Writings on Fear, Risk, and Hope will benefit The Save Darfur Coalition, an organization that seeks to end the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Luke and Jennifer Reynolds are both passionate about human rights causes and literature. Currently they live in Marlborough, Massachusetts, with their son, Tyler. Luke is a teacher and writer and Jennifer is a freelance writer and full-time mother.

In "(Not that You Asked)," Steve Almond documents a life spent brawling with the idiot kings of modern culture. He squares off against Sean Hannity on national TV, takes on Oprah Winfrey, nearly gets kidnapped by a reality TV crew, and winds up in Boston, where he quickly enrages the entire population of Red Sox Nation. Amid the carnage, he finds time to celebrate his literary hero, the late Kurt Vonnegut. These are essays the "Los Angeles Times "has called "rich, fearless [and] cutting."
Praise for "(Not that You Asked)
""Refreshingly irreverent . . . absurdly funny."
"-The Boston Globe "
"[Almond] scores big in every chapter of this must-have collection. Biting humor, honesty, smarts and heart: Vonnegut himself would have been proud."
"-Kirkus Reviews "(starred review)
"Taunting, revealing, irreverent, and earnest."
"-The New York Times"
"Steve Almond has created a distinctive voice and literary persona. Pleasure-obsessed, self-deprecating, horny, hilarious and always dedicated to parsing the messy terrain of the human heart."
-Forward.com

Despite the availability of several eloquent gender studies of fairy tales, a popular reference on men and fairy tales has so far been nonexistent. ""Brothers and Beasts"" offers a new perspective by allowing twenty-three male writers the chance to explore their artistic and emotional relationship to their favorite fairy-tale stories. In their personal essays, the contributors - who include genre, literary, mainstream, and visual media writers - offer new insight into men's reception of fairy tales. ""Brothers and Beasts"", the follow-up to Kate Bernheimer's influential ""Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales"", offers new avenues for research in fairy-tale studies.Bernheimer has invited many well-known writers to contribute to this volume, from Gregory Maguire, whose acclaimed titles include ""Wicked"", ""Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister"", and ""Son of a Witch"", to Robert Coover, one of the premier authors of postmodern fiction, to Neil Gaiman, a well-known fantasy fiction writer and author of graphic novels. With a foreword by Maria Tatar and an afterword by Jack Zipes, the intimate and contemplative essays are framed by insight from two leading fairy-tale studies scholars.""Brothers and Beasts"" proves that men are deeply influenced by the childhood reading of fairy tales, despite the fact that these fantastic and memorable tales are often mistakenly considered to be the domain of women readers and writers. Students and teachers of fairy-tale and gender studies along with readers of contemporary literature will enjoy this accessible and intriguing volume.

Steve Almond, the man whose candy jones fueled the bestseller "Candyfreak," returns with a collection of stories that both seals his reputation as a master of the modern form and risks getting him arrested. The cast of characters in "The Evil B.B. Chow and Other Stories" includes a wealthy family certain they have been abducted by space aliens, a sexy magazine editor who falls for a worldclass cad, and a beleaguered dentist who refuses to read his best friend's novel. Michael Jackson and Abraham Lincoln make cameos, as do a variety of desperate and beautiful loonies, all of whom are laid bare, often literally. In these twelve stories, Almond refuses to let his characters off the hook, or to abandon them, until we have seen the full measure of ourselves within their struggle.