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Great for book clubs, writing groups & journal writing
Great for book clubs, writing groups & journal writing
Tales of Zoalmont & the Melancholy Fringe
In the tradition of writers from Sherwood Anderson and Raymond Carver to James Thurber and Garrison Keillor, these 27 short stories by Mark Morelli give you a wide range of themes and topics to stimulate your classroom and students' mind. Morelli's easy-to-read, off-kilter view of a time takes you to the past that is recent but seems so far away...before cable, the web, cell phones and social media. These character-driven short stories describe a Norman Rockwell world colliding with a 24/7 media age, leaving today's readers on the fringe of an unusual time, culture and place. Review “A young girl with her BB gun; a goopy-eyed boy in a dank basement; a muddy, drunk man hiding behind his father’s freshly dug grave: these are just a few of the characters you’ll meet—and become haunted by—in Mark Morelli’s Tales of Zoalmont and the Melanchology Fringe. Arranged in the order in which they were written, between 1982 and 1993, these stories reveal much more than a young man earning chops as a fiction writer. The settings are vivid, conflicts concisely defined, and the themes are eternal: love, death, and the binding power of Italian cooking. Morelli also exhibits a finely tuned ear for dialogue—the stilted stammer of a father delivering “The Talk” to his son; the loaded Morse code of long-married couples; and the plaintive patter of whiskey drinkers. You will come to know, intimately, the keenly drawn denizens of Zoalmont, and you will carry them with you for a long, long time.” Kimberly Willardson Editor, The Vincent Brothers Review www.vincentbrothersreview.org |
Effwords: Faith, Family, Fatherhood & That Other One
Warm, simple, humorous but provocative essays, each with questions and prompts to spark discussion, writing and personal discovery on a wide range of topics relevant to students. Review “In the eighteen pithy essays comprising Effwords, Mark Morelli deftly explores the power of words and writing. Riffing on small items such as a broken, abandoned umbrella, a plucked autumn leaf, and a stick tossed into a river, Morelli unveils the rich tapestry of adventure and purpose just below the surface of our ordinary lives. He also declares the communicative nature of jazz the perfect model for dinner conversation, and poses questions after each essay, inviting his readers to continue the conversation. All avid readers — writers, both new and seasoned, as well as teachers, students, and book club members — will find themselves delighted to follow Morelli’s lead.” Kimberly Willardson Editor, The Vincent Brothers Review www.vincentbrothersreview.org |