Lyric and gritty, glowing and graceful, The Sky Is a Well and Other Shorts is a complex and compact collection from Claudia Smith, funny-sad master of the short short form. Evocative of places and times long gone or going, the ephemera of memory and emotion, youth and age, each story unfolds like a song on a concept album the pieces can stand alone, but together they blend into a seamless whole you ll want to hear again and again.

The Sky Is a Well and Other Shorts is the winner of the Rose Metal Press first annual short short story chapbook contest, judged by Ron Carlson. The chapbook has 2-color letterpressed covers, designed by Rebecca Krzyzaniak, and the binding for each book is saddle-sewn by hand.