PRAISE

“[Gershow’s] acclaimed first novel, The Local News, was published 15 years ago, while this assemblage of shorter fiction was 20 years in the making. The wait was worth it — these tales feature intricately detailed characters who blunder through life’s dilemmas, big and small…The characters are so truly drawn, and the interior narratives they entertain are so brutally and sometimes hilariously honest, it is difficult to look away.” —Barbara Lloyd McMichael, Bookmonger

"Gershow has a knack for fictional characters so keenly human that you expect any one of them to show up at your front door. Such is the case for those who populate her marvelous collection, Survival Tips. You want to invite these folks to your table with their shaggy edges and soupçon of cynicism. You want share in their dilemmas, which make you feel heartsick and yet profoundly relieved that you're not alone in this mad world." —Debra Gwartney, author of I Am a Stranger Here Myself

"Gershow's meticulously-crafted stories tenderly explore the strategies people use to survive the humiliations, fears, and ghosts of everyday life-within families and friendships, dating and marriage, and the relentless landscapes of memory. Against the backdrop of troubled cities in an even more troubled world, her deeply authentic characters navigate ways-neither neat nor heroic-to access control in constrained situations: blind dates and parent-teacher nights, baby showers and birthday parties, sweat lodges and funeral homes. In this poignant examination of human hypocrisy and devotion, Gershow writes with intelligence, humor, and empathy. I loved Survival Tips." —Corrina Wycoff, author of Damascus House and O Street

"Gershow's characters in Survival Tips range from wives and husbands to teenage girls, insecure teachers, unhappy mothers, women on blind dates, and women clinging to friendships past their expiration date. They struggle with communication as their relationships fall apart, or fail to start, or survive. In ten stories you won't forget, Gershow writes with a sharp eye for detail, impeccably wry wit, and unerring insight into the human heart. A stellar collection." —Jacqueline Doyle, author of The Missing Girl

AUTHOR

Miriam Gershow's debut novel, The Local News, was hailed as "unusually credible and precise" and "deftly heartbreaking" by The New York Times and was a finalist for an Oregon Book Award. Her stories have appeared in The Georgia Review, Gulf Coast, and Black Warrior Review, among other journals, and her creative nonfiction has been featured in journals including Salon and Craft Literary. She is the recipient of a Fiction Fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing and an Oregon Literary Fellowship, and her stories have been listed in the Robert Olen Butler Prize Stories. She teaches writing at the University of Oregon.