The Best of Gival Press Short Stories
Robert L. Giron
This collection of Gival Press award-winning stories can both inspire and instruct as they deal with the complexities in one's everyday life which can lead to tragedy (Water by Tim Johnston) to the revelation of the moment that can stun (I-95, Southbound by Perry Glasser) to one's betrayal (Void by Karenmary Penn) to mysterious and ambiguous motivations that drive our impulses (Harvest Cycle by Marie Holmes) to a family member who discovers his sexuality (Legacy by Iqbal Pittalwala) to one's partner who can't feel the music that liberates (The Music She Will Never Hear by Kristin FitzPatrick) to entering the loneliness of a young man's aspirations (On the Verge by Tim Mullaney) to echoes of the ancient Cain and Abel rivalry (Progressive Linkage by Steven J. Cahill) to how we calculate our decisions and live our difficult lives (Fat Tails by Daniel Degnan) to how we struggle to connect with others (Better Terms by Mark Wisniewski) to understanding the complexities of others' relationships (For All the Obvious Reasons by Lynn Stegner).
In short, these stories will hold your attention because they are vividly cast and the characters are so real you are bound to identify with them on different levels, even if you may not be walking in their footsteps. A perfect collection for composition, introduction to literature, fiction, or creative writing to guide students to write compelling stories.
Robert L. Giron
Robert L. Giron is the grandson of the late Casimiro E. (ès Monge) Giron, musician, composer, and conductor of his orchestra, and the great grandson of a pioneer of San Angelo, Texas, who ran his own stagecoach service between El Paso (formerly El Paso del Norte), San Angelo, and San Antonio before railroads arrived in West Texas. His family roots go back four centuries in what is now the USA. In addition to having Comanche and Mexican/Spanish roots on the maternal side of his family, he has paternal lineage to the houses of Spain (Osuna / Sevilla) and France (Lorraine). Giron holds a B.A. degree from the University of Texas at El Paso where he studied linguistics and foreign languages; he later did post graduate work in creative writing with José Antonio Villarreal, Jon Manchip White, and the late Raymond Carver. He also holds a master's from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and later studied comparative literature at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor under a Mellon Fellowship and has spent two summers at Selwyn College studying literature at the University of Cambridge International Summer Programme in Cambridge, England. Giron, a native of Nebraska, thinks of himself as a transplanted Texan who currently lives in Arlington, Virginia. He is the past coordinator of Honors Programs and teaches English, creative writing, and film and literature at Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland. Trilingual, he writes in English, Spanish, and French.
