Sometimes Creek

by Steve Fox

The seventeen unrelenting stories in Steve Fox’s debut story collection, Sometimes Creek, traverse a sub-zero trail of plausible magic and grit from a kaleidoscope of broken ice at a hockey rink in Wisconsin that coils through haunted rivers and around dangling legs of jamón serrano in sweltering Spanish bars and back again to a place where Kafka and Carver meet up on the page. Fox’s clean prose takes you by the hand and weaves a tapestry of tenderness, dissonance, indifference, dystopia, and charm into that gauzy space that collectively takes shape in your hands as Sometimes Creek.

234 pages, Paperback

Published January 26, 2023

About the author

Steve Fox is the winner of the Zona Gale Award for Short Fiction, the Rick Bass Montana Prize for Fiction, The Great Midwest Writing Contest, the Jade Ring Award, and Midwestern Gothic Summer Flash Contest. His fiction has appeared in New Ohio Review, Orca, Midwest Review, Midwestern Gothic,Whitefish Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and others. He holds a Master of Arts in Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has lived and worked in four continents. His story collection, Sometimes Creek, is a finalist for the 2023 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award and winner of the 2023 American Book Fest's Best Book Award. Steve lives in Wisconsin with his wife, three boys, and one dog.

Reviews

[Michelle Caffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Stunning Short Story Collection
Steve Fox’s debut collection of seventeen short stories is a moving compilation of prize-winning works. Each story often led this reader to unexpected places while delving into nature, pets, and personal relationships in a combination of stark reality and magical realism. There’s humor too. For example, in one story, a COVID-19 survivor has a discussion with a Kafkaesque human-sized rodent who insists in an “Upper-Midwestern accent” that it is the biggest mouse the protagonist will ever see—it is not a rat. Fox uses his Midwestern background to lace his storytelling with delicious details of boyhood as he explores themes of rejection, alienation, and grief. My favorites were “Exile,” “Larmet Lunker,” and the title’s namesake, “Sometimes Creek.” There’s something exhilarating about the experience of reading a short story where within only a few pages and in less than an hour or so, you're left stunned and delighted by the story's impact.

[Milt Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This debut collection took me totally by surprise. Unlike most collections I read, which are typical horror collections, some of them brilliant and original but seldom fancy or literary, Steve Fox's unsettling collection manages to combine high literary fiction with unexpected imagery and genuinely entrancing prose. In the stories you'll find a bit too much misery, lots of nostalgia, and a pervading sadness. To be sure, this are all integral to the stories, but there's also smart humor and the twists of an explosive imagination: animals speak and give advice; places and atmosphere have important roles in the plot; and sometimes, wisdom comes from the lowest places (e.g., a homeless man in 'Exile', the opening story of the collection.) 'Sometimes Creek' by Steve Fox is not a book you simply consume and put on the bookshelf: it raises some deep points about the horrors of the everyday, though the answers given, if any, seem to me always flawed. Yet they leave the reader satisfied. I guess this is the charm of good prose, the unassuming strength of a gifted author.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Larry F. Sommers · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s real life as lived in the Upper Midwest on those days when the air is numinous and reality must be seen on a slant to be viewed at all.
The seventeen stories in Steve Fox’s collection Sometimes Creek are regional, populated by folks you know from down the block. They are also universal tales where things happen, in the plot but most of all inside the characters, that stand your expectations on end and make you think about the human condition.
In “The Butcher’s Ghost,” a man and woman slip, separately, into a clifftop bistro with a haunted past—each taking refuge from world-woundedness. The two lonely souls seem like ships passing in the night, but you realize gradually that something more is going on.
The title story, “Sometimes Creek,” gives us a father and daughter in the grip of overpowering grief, who must relocate their household into a neighborhood crazed with its annual Halloween rituals. The neighbors welcome their healing hearts with a mix of help and hindrance, which may or may not make things come round right in the end.
Each of the stories in this collection is multi-layered, dense with nuance and surprise. They are stories that will repay a second or even a third reading. You notice something new each time around.
If you’ve been captured by such masters as Jack Finney and Stephen King, these stories may transport you to similar territory. Two thumbs up, but only because that’s all the thumbs I’ve got.

[Tylor James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes Creek is an extraordinary collection of tales—a few of which are so clever, so well-penned and uniquely executed, that they ought to be considered for inclusion in the next “Best American Short Stories”. With this debut collection, Steve Fox emerges onto the literary scene as among the best writers of the American Midwest.

These tales are, in essence, ironic and metaphorical explorations of human beings at their most broken, vulnerable, and introspective. The tale, “Exiles” features one of the most effective second-person narratives I've ever read, with a power of description that is truly excellent. “The Butcher’s Ghost” is an absorbing mosaic of scenes and people which focuses more on the “people” than the ghost. Quite excitingly, “Yard Mary” is one of the best weird tales I’ve read in some time—a highlight in this collection due to its sheer supernatural oddity. “Orange Tree Dog” delivers a narrative belonging to a young boy around ten or eleven—refreshingly, we see the world purely, curiously, and empathetically. Fox has a particular knack for writing narratives from the point of view of children—a rare treat indeed, to be transported back to the open and curious mindset of childhood, accomplished through the author’s reliable and inimitable prose.

There's many fine tales in Sometimes Creek; a book I heartily recommend to friend and foe alike!

[Mary Schreiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some reviews described Steve Fox's SOMETIMES CREEK as dark and Gothic. Others labeled his short stories as horror. All the descriptors I normally tried to avoid. However, after attending his reading, Fox piqued my interest by defining the genre of SOMETIMES CREEK as “speculative, literary Gothic fiction.” I had to read this book.
Yes, there were dark and Gothic scenes, but I’m glad I visited each one. These stories felt real and surreal. Two paradoxical, even contradictory experiences, but Fox wove them together to create realms that inspired me.
This book haunted me, but not in the way I’m normally haunted. These stories forced me to question why more writers don’t push against the boundaries of “reality,” against those marvelous shadows we all know exist, but pretend they don’t.
For those of us living in Wisconsin, “Yard Mary” is a must read. My favorite? I enjoyed them all. However, I can’t stop thinking about: “I Prefer You in Spanish” and “Everyone is Dead.” Thank you, Steve Fox. SOMETIMES CREEK is now my favorite Halloween read.

[Marie Zhuikov · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unusual collection of short stories, but in a good way. A mix of ghosts, family drama and large rodents. My faves were "The Butcher's Ghost," because I could see the setting so well- reminds me of my home town. And "I Prefer You in Spanish," because I am a romantic at heart and this one has a happy ending.

[Shelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horror stories that make you think. These stories are amazing. Each is a fascinating piece of work that I have enjoyed. I love finding. New creative work and he has brought it.

I was offered a free copy in return for an honest revi.

[Courtney Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great slice of life read.
I enjoyed this book. These short stories gave interesting and at times thought provoking glimpse into lives.

[Jeff Weyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

So great. Especially reading the seventeen story here in the Upper Midwest in October.

[Russell Thayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a startling and surprising collection. Startling for the creative use of language. Surprising for the directions these varied and haunting stories take. Well done.

[Sally Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stirring, entrancing collection of stories set in the Midwest. Vivid imagery, crisp prose, creepy, funny, and well-realized.