First Title? Roy Kesey's All Over

Dzanc Books is proud to announce we have found the book that will become our first title:  Roy Kesey's extraordinary debut short story collection, All Over.  Dzanc Books will publish All Over in October 2007.

Roy Kesey has been hailed as one our best young writers, and All Over presents 19 of his most original and provocative stories.  George Saunders called Kesey's writing, "beautiful and powerful ... mythic, vivid, heart-rending."  Roy's work has appeared in over 50 top flight journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Mississippi Review, and The Georgia Review.  Several of the stories in All Over have previously appeared in journals such as Kenyon Review, McSweeney's, Other Voices, and The Iowa Review.

Roy currently lives in Beijing, where in addition to writing incredible fiction, he also writes two regular columns -- "Dispatches from Roy Kesey, an American Guy Married to a Peruvian Diplomat Living in China," for the McSweeney's website, and "Little-Known Corners," which appears monthly in That's Beijing.  Kesey's writing in All Over is filled with great inventiveness, his characters and stories at once unique and familiar.  Roy believes that " ... there has to be someting fundamentally human threaded through all that -- fear and pain and love and worry and jealousy and generosity and spilled juice, say - for it to be worth writing or reading."  (Interview with Richard Cooper at Satori Kick).

Roy Kesey has previously published the novella, Nothing in the World (2006, Bullfight Press).  Tom Bissell described it as "Beautiful, brave, and I will not forget it soon."  Dzanc Books is delighted to be able to expose more of Roy's writing to a much wider audience by publishing a collection of his short stories.  As a young writer whose novella was unanimously well received, and with a lengthy story publishing resume, Roy is on the verge of exploding onto the scene.  And we here at Dzanc Books are thrilled to be able to announce the forthcoming publication of All Over.

For any further information, send to info@dzancbooks.org

Dan Wickett - dan@dzancbooks.org

Steve Gillis - steve@dzancbooks.org

Comments

[Matt]

Congratulations to everyone involved! I think Kesey's a fantastic choice for your first book. I can't wait to read it.

[Myfanwy Collins]

Wonderful news. I'm looking forward to this book.

[Pia Z. Ehrhardt]

Brilliant writer, brilliant decision. October can't come soon enough!

[aaron]

YAAAYYYYYY!

[Daniel Olivas]

Roy is one of the most remarkable new writers around. His novella, "Nothing in the World," displayed gifts at fiction-writing not often seen. This is wonderful news for readers!

[Matthew Tiffany]

Looking forward to this - nice job -

[Mary Akers]

This is fabulous news! Congratulations to both Roy and Dzanc Books!

[Avital GC]

Great news! I love Roy's work.

[Jane Kesey]

I am looking forward to reading Roy's newest collection. I am lucky to own his very first writing, The Adventures of Snakey Poo, written when he was four. It was good, but I'm sure All Over will be even better!

Mom

[Roy Kesey]

Thanks very much, everybody--I'm really looking forward to getting these stories out into the world.

However, I must take issue with the latest post, the one from my so-called "Mom". My first work of fiction, The Monster That Attacked the House, a hypodiegetic intra/exploration of the Other as manifested by this monster, see, who attacks this house, was, if I'm not mistaken, published well in advance of the appearance of The Adventures of Snakey Poo.

Actually, though, now that I think of it, I'm not really sure about that. Mom, could you check those dates?

Also, again, I'm really really sorry about that whole thing with the potato gun and your begonias. Dang. Sorry.