Meghan Kenny's debut collection, Love Is No Small Thing, gives readers an assembly of keenly drawn characters each navigating the world looking for an understanding of love in its many forms and complexities—be it romantic, parental, elusive, or eternal. A father may teach his teenage son "Hearts break easy," but as Kenny's characters discover, knowing an important truth about love is no substitute for experiencing it. In the title story, a woman learns of her boyfriend's infidelity on Halloween night and contemplates lost years, concealments, and the difficulty of walking away. An Idaho cameraman and his cross-dressing, sky-diving son try to find common ground in "All These Lovely Boys." A first date at the Corkscrew Swamp Bird Sanctuary becomes something else altogether in "Sanctuary," and in "Heartbreak Hotel," a father swaps stories of disappointments and losses with his daughter and an unwanted passenger on a cross-country road trip. Throughout this collection, Kenny's characters try to bridge the gap between what they expected of their lives and what they have received. They struggle to understand their own identities and the value of the relationships they have or want, with results that are funny and poignant in equal measure. Employing minimalist language and character-driven storytelling, Meghan Kenny grapples with love in all its messiness and uncertainty, revealing vital truths about the vagaries of the human heart and establishing Kenny as a vibrant new voice in the American literary landscape.
Author
Meghan Kenny was raised in Connecticut and New Hampshire. She received her BA in English and creative writing from Kenyon College, and her MFA in fiction from Boise State University. She was the 2008-2009 Tickner Fellow at the Gilman School, a Bernard O'Keefe Scholar at Bread Loaf, a Peter Taylor Fellow at The Kenyon Review Writers' Workshop, and has held residencies at Vermont Studio Center and La Muse in France. She has lived in France, Japan, and Peru, and has taught writing and literature to grades 4-12 for Writers in the Schools Program in Idaho, Writers at Harriman, Gerstell Academy, Gilman School, Boise State University, Towson University, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Gotham Writers' Workshop online. She currently teaches at Lancaster Country Day School in Pennsylvania. Her stories have appeared in literary journals such as The Gettysburg Review, Cincinnati Review, and Hobart, among others. She was awarded the 2005 Iowa Review Award for her story, "The Driest Season", which was a Pushcart Prize Special Mention, and her story "Heartbreak Hotel" won 2nd place in Glimmer Train's 2012 Fiction Open. She has written a novel titled Away Toward Home and a short story collection titled Love is No Small Thing, and is seeking publication for both books.
