Stray Dogs

by William Hastings (Editor), Sherman Alexie (Contributor), Steven Huff (Contributor)

Stray Dogs is a collection of writers, poets and songwriters who write about the America that does not exist in the glossy magazines, the Hollywood blockbuster or the corporate novel. These are highway songs and gutter poems, whiskey-soaked and sun scorched stories for the forgotten and lost. This is the other side of the electric American night.

Genres: Short Stories, Poetry

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2014

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stray Dogs is an amazing collection of stories that focus not on long complicated cons, but on a bunch of losers banging around on the wrong side of the tracks. These aren't stories of inherently clever psychopaths or notorious femme Fatales. These are stories of small town guys who joined the army and end up doing long haul trucking. Their teeth are rotting away. These are stories of guys wandering the streets of Key West with their dog, hoping to score with some girl. These are stories of strung-out folks in a rain-soaked hell. Then, there are the bullies who tear people's lives apart and the guys who get Charles Atlas results overnight and become the bully. There's nothing candy-coated here.

Death isn't quick, but rough and bloody and gunky. There's the guy who thinks he might as well rip off the local liquor store. It's a world filled with drunks, rotting meth mouths, and dirtbag old whores. There's a few poems and prose thrown in but mainly it's about dudes growing up in trailers behind gas stations.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Stray Dogs: Writing from the Other America, editor William Hastings brings together stories, poems and songs by 19 authors who write about America at the margins — the America of the down-and-out and forgotten.

Each piece in the collection is powerful in its own way, speaking truths in unflinching, unadulterated language. I have my favorites, of course. “M-F Dog” by Vicki Hendricks tells of a young man whose plan to buy a dog as a sort of “chick magnet” takes some unusual twists and turns. Will Vlautin’s “Lorna” is a heart-breaking study of impotent maternal devotion. “Johanna Stull” by Daniel Woodrell (author of “Winter’s Bone”) explores the ramifications of ugly justice against a man who occupies “the throne in the shadows” in a rural community. Joseph Haske sets his portrait of men capable of both great violence and amazing compassion against cold streams teeming with fish in the pre-dawn dark in “Smelt.” And Sherman Alexie chants a haunting conjuration of all the people lost to him in “One Stick Song.”

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best things for me about reading a collection of short stories is when I discover interesting authors I haven’t read and I found a few new ones in this book. For the most part, these stories (along with some poetry and song lyrics) concern those who live tough lives on the margins. I found this to be good, honest writing about people who are mostly invisible to the rest of society.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful collection work from authors who are generally marginalized by our society. These stories come are about the working poor that make up a good portion of America's population but are hardly represented in our fiction or media. These voices speak hard truths with unflinching words.

They won't tell you how to think and they won't justify their stories to anyone but these are the writers who write regardless of audience, recognition or awards. Eric Miles Williamson's classic tale of get-back will have you laughing and cringing at once while Michael Gills' story of the football glory days captures the mysterious way time passes through lives. Larry Fondation's short piece is as sharp and clear as always. Ron Cooper's "The Art of Carving" is larger than life and twice as vibrant while Patrick Michael Finn & Joseph Haske deliver a double does of the reality of living life on the edges.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little collection of Hillbilly Noir and other anti social (as it stands) rants, poems and songs. The real gem is "Smelt" by Joseph Haske. I'm keeping an eye squinted for a copy of the novel version.

[J. Mummey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting book: raw, clever, sad - I will keep it on the shelf and read it again someday:)

[John Molina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will talk about this book later.