Lock and Load

Complex depictions of the aloneness of the ´rugged individual’ with a destructive weapon at hand. Kevin McIlvoy, author of The Complete History of New Mexico: Stories

Our finest writers parse out the nuances of this complicated and divisive issue in a way that only great literature can. Sheryl Monks, author of Monsters in Appalachia: Stories?

This is a powerful, challenging, and often exquisite response to our lethally dangerous gun culture. These stories reveal our complicated relationship to weapons, and offer chilling evidence of the way violence affects our contemporary consciousness. Roxana Robinson, author of Sparta: A Novel

An unflinching look at a hard subject. America is the land of the armed. The impressive chorus of voices here proves the pen is mightier than the gun. Jason Ockert, author of Wasp Box

A brilliant anthology. Every story—sad, sweet, hilarious, thoughtful, or satirical—turns up a gun. Clearly, a loaded gun is inspirational. Kelly Cherry, author of Temporium: Before the Beginning to After the End

Lock and Load offers everything we want from our fiction: emotional insight, quality storytelling, distinctive prose. Not to mention it’s a real shoot-’em-up of a read! David Philip Mullins, author of Greetings from Below

Though we’re talking about cowboys, Portuguese gang members, returned veterans, and abandoned women, one more character’s always on the page: the gun. Cully Perlman, author of The Losses: A Novel

Trigger warning: in these spectacular stories many guns will go off. Chekhov, I’m certain, would approve. Daniel Mueller, author of How Animals Mate: Short Stories