Survival Tips: Stories follows characters through their friendships, their jobs, their marriages, and their grief as they stumble toward connection and meaning. A wife begins communicating to her husband only in rebus puzzles. A new teacher confronts her strongest foes, the parents of a disruptive student. A group of conference-goers join their guru in a jerry-rigged sweat lodge. A woman shows up to her blind date in a "Don't Leave Me" t-shirt. With wit and candor, these ten stories examine the ways we live, the mistakes we make, and the paths we take in hopes of delivering us to ourselves and each other. “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 “Miriam Gershow has a knack for fictional characters so keenly human that you expect any one of them to show up at your front door. ” —Debra Gwartney, author of I Am a Stranger Here Myself and Live Through This "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
Author
Miriam Gershow’s debut novel, The Local News, was hailed as “unusually credible and precise" and "deftly heartbreaking” by The New York Times. Miriam’s stories appear in The Georgia Review, Gulf Coast and Black Warrior Review, among other journals. She is the recipient of a Fiction Fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing andan Oregon Literary Fellowship, as well as writing residencies at Playa Summer Lake and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. Miriam lives with her family in Eugene OR, where she teaches at the University of Oregon. She is at work on her next novel. (Photo Credit: Livia Fremouw)
