Forgetting English: Stories

Winner of the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction

In this new, expanded edition of her prize-winning collection, Midge Raymond stretches the boundaries of place as she explores the indelible imprint of home upon the self and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm who we are. The characters who inhabit these stories travel for business or for pleasure, sometimes out of duty and sometimes in search of freedom, and each encounters the unexpected. From a biologist navigating the stark, icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the lonely islands of the South Pacific, the characters in these stories abandon their native landscapes--only to find that, once separated from the ordinary, they must confront new interpretations of who they really are, and who they're meant to be.

"Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats...Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst."
-- The Seattle Times

"All of her stories are heartbreakingly honest ... I wouldn't be surprised if she started getting compared to Alice Munro or Jhumpa Lahiri."
-- Seattle Books Examiner

"Raymond skillfully uses the resources of place, culture, and language to reveal the complications of the heart and the complexities of human character and circumstance."
-- Pleiades

"Raymond has quiet, unrelenting control over the writing; each story is compelling and thrives because each detail and line of dialogue reveals just a little more about the characters and the evocative settings."
-- The Rumpus

"In her impressive debut collection, Forgetting English, Midge Raymond sets her stories in a variety of locations outside the continental United States...Alongside personal, human histories, Raymond incorporates larger traditions. Marriage rites. Fertility symbols. The meaning of jade. The natural history of the penguin."
--Fiction Writers Review

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