Proof of Me & Other Stories

by Erica Plouffe Lazure

All things are delicately interconnected in these stories set in a small town in eastern North Carolina. From the rambunctious antics of an erstwhile Shad Queen to the guilt-throttled grief of a secret affair gone wrong, Proof of Me and Other Stories stitches together the lives and adventures of each of its characters, in unexpected and peculiar ways, from one story to the next.

Praise for Proof of Me and Other Stories:

Erica Plouffe Lazure is a master of the ways that allow great writers of fiction to transport us beyond the boundaries of our own lives and into the hearts and souls of others: She inhabits her characters profoundly and she sings from there in richly real voices. Proof of Me is proof of Lazure’s literary genius. She is one of my favorite contemporary writers.

—ROBERT OLEN BUTLER

“Erica Plouffe Lazure’s stories are downright combustible: Proof of Me begins, quite literally, with a bang, and the intensity never wavers. Here is a writer who knows how to create characters that will haunt you long after you finish their woebegone tales, told in prose that glints and glimmers.”
— NICK WHITE
author of Sweet & Low and How to Survive a Summer

“At one point in Erica Plouffe Lazure’s beautiful and masterful collection, Proof of Me and Other Stories, a character says: ‘you need distance to love something fully.’ These powerful, moving stories are about just that, finding the right distance: within a family, within a class or gender, within one’s self. The compelling details and knowledge on the page—rich depictions of the natural world and all creatures inhabiting—speak to the greater truths about humans. How they live and yes, finally, how they love. Lovely work by a wonderfully gifted writer.”
— JILL McCORKLE
author of Hieroglyphics

“Erica Plouffe Lazure’s Proof of Me is a striking debut collection. Put your ear to the page and you will hear trace vibrations of O’Connor, Welty, Hannah and others, but the prose is all her own. Lazure’s sentences are richly textured, sensory, and alive with dark comedy and pitiless observation. As for the characters, she has clearly been watching them all her life.”
— SVEN BIRKERTS
author of Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age

“Proof of Me is such a beautifully textured book. Every sentence of Lazure’s prose is stamped with authority and confidence, allowing the people, place, situations, and descriptions a rich and satisfying dimensionality.”
— AIMEE BENDER
author of The Butterfly Lampshade

“If you can imagine Flannery O’Connor watching Wheel of Fortune or hearing a bad version of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at karaoke night, that might give you some idea of Erica Plouffe Lazure’s Proof of Me. In these darkly comic linked stories, the reader encounters a meticulous eye for detail, a keen ear for American voices, and an astringent sympathy for men who mow their lawns ‘bare-chested, pot-belly proud’ and women who know ‘there’s always problems with the mens, long as there been mens.’
— DAVID GATES
author of A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me

Genres: Short Stories

248 pages, Paperback

Published March 24, 2022

Reviews

[Tommi Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erica Plouffe Lazure’s Proof of Me & Other Stories (New American Press 2022) cements her rightful place as one of my favorite southern contemporary short story authors. We studied at ECU together and I’ve been a fan since that first story we workshopped. I’ve previously compared her work to Bobbie Ann Mason and Flannery O’Connor, and that Southern grotesque wit and charm that they are so known for just oozes from the pages of this new collection.

I’d read some of the stories before because they’d been published in other journals, and “The Shit Branch,” which first appeared in Tahoma Journal is still my favorite thing Lazure has ever written. It’s about family and missing pieces and misunderstandings and missed chances. And that’s a theme that echoes throughout the series of stories that weave in and out of each other, consistently bringing us home to Mewborn, a small town in eastern NC, and its colorful cast of inhabitants.
I couldn’t get “Annealed” out of my head because it’s cleverly written, but also of how much it reminded me of O’Connor’s “Good Country People.” But instead of a crooked Bible salesman who steals Joy’s prosthetic, we have the skate-boarding Juniper who steals the narrator’s scabs (and money), but untethers her from cheating husband who has finally left and a life that was weighing her down.

There are Shad queens and affairs. Marching bands and suicides. Pancake suppers and overdoses. There are dreams and prodigal sons. There are baby shower decorations and secrets buried in a family swamp. The pages are littered with the broken, discarded and lost – from stuffed ducks and Monopoly pieces to innocence and hearts.

Read this collection.

[Barb Ristine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Proof of Me
I devoured Proof of Me & Other Stories, and finished it, craving more. The connected short stories are mostly set in the fictional small town of Mewborn, North Carolina, where everyone knows everyone else’s business and has an opinion about it. Mewborn is the kind of place where the annual Shad Festival is the highlight of the social calendar. The kind of place where neighbors know your secrets, even when you do your best to hide them. The kind of place you call home, even if you don’t live there anymore.
At times, the stories are laugh-out-loud vignettes of small-town life, but read on a few more pages, and they’ll break your heart. The writing is spare, yet lyrical. Every character is richly drawn, and the details of their lives are poignantly rendered. The stories are non-linear, and characters unexpectedly pop up in other stories. These are quirky and memorable characters, even when they’re not very likable: unhappy married couples who still manage to show bits of affection for one another; the Shad Queen who loses her crown over an affair; a single mother who runs off to fight fires in Montana, leaving her five-year-old daughter behind to be raised by her prickly aunt and doting uncle.
Reading these stories, I felt like I was at a bourbon-soaked free-for-all family reunion of lovable misfits. I didn’t want to leave.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

While we do need to know ourselves, that knowledge sometimes gets thrown into relief by other people, by those around us. And who we are is not always who we think we are. Proof of Me by Erica Plouffe Lazure is a collection of linked stories set mainly in and around the eastern North Carolina town of Mewborn. Many of the stories involve characters trying to see themselves as separate from their families, separate from their perceived obligations, and if they took a step back, as some eventually do, they see a disconnect. Everyone is trying. But the trying doesn't always add up. This is exemplified in two of the stronger stories, "The Duck Walk" and "Shad Daze." While most of the stories are short, Lazure provides just enough context, just enough resonance with the rest of the collection, to tie it all together. The connections aren't always overt, sometimes passing references, as it can be in small towns. But lives are lived in public just as much as in private. We don't always know what's going on with other people, if at all. The most we can do if offer empathy. Lazure isn't trying to pass judgment on small town life but is showing how we are all just trying our best. The proof of me is in the living. I have been here. I am here. I am me.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I wish I had liked this collection of stories more, they are certainly well-written. Most take place in the fictional town of Mewborn, NC. (Mewborn is the name of an old and prominent family in the eastern part of the state).

The stories typically are linked, especially through a character named Cassidy whom the book follows from a very early age through adulthood. Juniper Weaver, Billy Dice and Lora Jones also appear in more than one story. I wish I could point to a story which I really liked, but that did not happen for me in this collection; nor, for that matter, did I seriously dislike any one. My problem is that they are typically about people who do not connect with their family or friends, and I found a kind of sour tone to the plots. They are also almost devoid of humor.

The collection is divided into five sections, but I am apparently not smart enough to figure out how each group of stories related to the section heading under which they are combined. And I wish the published had created a friendlier layout for the texts. There are too many words on a page, and that sort of slowed me down.

Anyway, Plouffe has a lot of talent as a writer. I will read more by her, but hope for content which has at least some cheerful moments.

[Margaret Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Because the lives and locales that come alive in this book were strange to me, it was at first difficult to get involved in theses stories but soon I was hooked. Each story is connected in atypical ways and has its own poignancy. I felt for the characters and they remain with me in their own unique ways. It is a very well written book and a pleasure to read.