Any Other Place
Stories
By Michael Croley
In his debut collection, Michael Croley takes us from the Appalachian region of rural Kentucky and Ohio to a village in South Korea in thirteen engaging stories in which characters find themselves, wherever they are, in states of displacement. Croley uses his absorbing prose and relentless intent to uncover his characters’ hidden disquiet and to bring us a remarkable and unique collection that expands the scope of modern American literature. This stunning and relentless collection explores themes of home and displacement.
2020 JAMES STILL AWARD FOR WRITING ABOUT THE APPALACHIAN SOUTH
2020 WEATHERFORD AWARD FOR FICTION
“Michael Croley’s Any Other Place is a story collection of immense power. Croley masterfully gathers disparate worlds through his sympathy and generous grasp. As the characters approach their truths of home, family, and duty, we witness the gorgeous possibility of what ordinary men and women seek— love, acceptance, and forgiveness.”
—Min Jin Lee, author of Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, finalist for the National Book Award
“Like the best writers, Michael Croley takes us into the lives of ordinary people who have been thrust into extraordinary circumstances of everyday life. There is not a wasted word in these thirteen taut and thrilling stories of grief, exile, and devotion.”
—Silas House, author of Southernmost
“Croley’s solid debut, set mostly in small-town Appalachia, explores masculinity, heartbreak, and isolation in 13 emotional stories. Readers will relish these melancholy stories of everyday and exceptional tragedies.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Michael Croley’s short story collection Any Other Place finds people in the circumstances they’d do anything to avoid and traces the ties of love, loyalty, and sacrifice that bind them. Croley’s stories are thrilling in the oldest sense of the word. They pierce, boring a hole straight into Fordyce’s singular, multitudinous heart.”
—Foreword Reviews
Paperback - ISBN: 9781949467000
Michael Croley was born in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Literature in 2016, his stories and essays have appeared in Narrative, Catapult, Blackbird, Kenyon Review Online, Virginia Quarterly Review, the Paris Review Daily, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing at Denison University.
