Fiction. SMALL ECONOMIES's short stories and flash fictions are economical in narration but comprehensive in their suggestion of the past, present, and future lives of their characters. The moments they contain are set against the background of diverse public spaces: the institutions, stores, factories, restaurants, even the street corners where people must come together and choose to serve, reject, or compete against one another. Palen writes with a poet's sensitivity to language and the physical, as well as empathy for all of his characters. The stories convey his clear conception of the sometimes devastating outcomes produced by the exchanges, material and intangible, people make and fail to make.

"John Palen brings his skill as a poet to this concisely elegant fiction collection, making every word count. If it is given that cruelty is part of human experience, so are unexpected acts of kindness, and Palen's characters compel us with both, whether in a nursing home, a chemical plant, or on 'Busker's Corner.'"—Gaynell Gavin

Author City: IL USA

John Palen has published seven books of poetry, most recently Harry Truman All the Way, from Pudding House, and Drizzle and Plum Blossoms: Four Poets of the Song Dynasty, in collaboration with Li C. Tien, from March Street Press. Mayapple Press brought out his Open Communion: New and Selected Poems in 2005. Palen lives in Central Illinois. He retired from the Journalism Department at Central Michigan University in 2009. SMALL ECONOMIES is his first collection of short fiction.

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