susan taylor chehak - Send a message to Susan

A collection of short stories centered on the complications of love and the disorientation of grief. "A poignant assortment of stylistically daring stories." -Kirkus Reviews

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IT'S NOT ABOUT THE DOG: STORIES

"The turns these stories take, structurally and emotionally, prove that Chehak is not only a daring literary artisan, but a connoisseur of human frailty. An acerbic, stirring collection from a master of the craft." -Kirkus Reviews

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Blessed

Available online at The Coachella Review

Darling Boy

Available online at Sliver of Stone

I Cradle You

Available online at Crack The Spine

Wee Woman

Available in The Minnesota Review, 2016, Issue 87

Coxswain

Available online at Ragazine

Honey

Available online at The Literary Nest

Helium

Available online at Ducts

This Is That

Available online at Green Hills Literary Lantern

The Rover and Mr. Fox

Available online in Jet Fuel Review

Felicity

Available now in Moon City Review

On The Moon

Read it online in Limestone

Mouse Wars

Read it in Verdad Magazine, Volume 14, Spring 2013

The Lost Art of Listening

Read the whole story online, at Blue Lake Review

What She Didn't Do

Online at Conte

Resurrection

Included in an anthology from Seedpod Press

Dawn

Read it in the Winter 2013 issue of Permafrost

Amity

read it in the summer 2013 issue of Grey Sparrow Journal

The Beginning of the End of All That

Read it in The Adirondack Review

Witness

Now available at Amarillo Bay

Dear Mr. Fantasy

Now available at Necessary Fiction: Part One and Part Two

What We Forget

Now available online at Juked

Just So

Read it in the Spring 2012 issue of Folio by subscribing HERE

Phipp

Read it online at the Coe Review

It's Not About the Dog

Available at Guernica Magazine

Interviews

THE FUTURE PERFECT: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN IRVING

The novelist on what atheists and true believers have in common and how Mark Twain, Henry James, and “Sigmund-fucking-Freud” lack imagination.

Read the whole interview at Guernica Magazine

Novels

THE MINOR APOCALYPSE OF MEENA KREJCI

Told through alternating narratives—a portrayal of the last few days of Meena's life and an account of the events in the past that have brought her to where she is now—this is the story of a woman running away from home for the first time and the strong, nearly universal desire to shed one's identity to become somebody else. BUY THE BOOK HERE

THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT, A CONFESSION

“[Chehak's] ambitiously imaginative novel questions the very nature of reality… [a] diverting exploration of metaphysical concepts. Winsome and smartly playful.” —Kirkus Reviews

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RAMPAGE

“In Susan Taylor Chehak’s skilled hands, Iowa becomes the seething, steamy setting for a tale of pure evil… This is a marvelous, creepy story.” -The Kansas City Star

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SMITHEREENS

"Chehak is a very accomplished storyteller, always in control of her narrative, which moves ahead with grace and speed. But it's not only the plot that matters to this writer. It's the telling little details, particularly of teenage angst and of domestic life that makes the novel rich... SMITHEREENS is a novel fully worthy of the title thriller. It's hard to put down. It has a kind of dark allure." - The Los Angeles Times

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DANCING ON GLASS

"A dark tale of obsession among the posh ranks of a midwestern town... Chehak's poetic style exposes the passionate longings beneath the mannered sterling-and-crystal patina of Cedar Hill life; she renders both violence and love with an unflinching eye and casts a mournful spell." -Vogue

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HARMONY

"Haunting . . . Clodine Wheeler is the bemused narrator who strings together brilliant beads of descriptive phrases as she sorts through her memories . . . Chehak skillfully depicts small-town meanness and ironic generosity . . . . Her mesmerizing tale has classic resonances." – Publishers Weekly

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THE STORY OF ANNIE D.

"Chehak's prose provides a seamless, calm flow to a novel whose elements of love and murder ripple enticingly, fully surfacing only gently, only eventually, in the most satisfying kind of storytelling." -Booklist

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