Short fiction. Tom Bailey's stories often locate us in the extremes of settings where he has grew up--from cotton fields to coal mining country to the wilds of the Adirondacks. Born in the Mississippi Delta, Bailey grew up following after his father, a former Marine Corps fighter pilot. Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog, has written of "the heart, the range, the compassion and balls and hard-earned wisdom" of Bailey's short stories. "Read Tom Bailey for his fine prose, his clear, unforgiving eye, his New South wisdom, and for the pure excitement of discovering a writer who's arrived" --Jayne Anne Phillips. Tom Bailey's fiction has been long-admired and widely read. His awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Pushcart Prize for fiction. He has taught at Harvard and Susquehanna Universities.