“Never
acknowledge the fact that you’re a girl, and take pride when your guy friends
say, ‘You’re one of the guys.’ Tell yourself, ‘I am one of the guys,’ even
though, in the back of your mind, a little voice says, ‘But you’ve got girl
parts.’” – Birdie, in “How to Be a Man”
A girl whose
self-worth revolves around masculinity, a bartender who loses her sense of
safety, a woman who compares men to plants, and a boy who shoots his
cranked-out father. These are a few of the hard-scrabble characters in Tamara
Linse’s debut short story collection, How
to Be a Man. Set in contemporary Wyoming—the myth of the West taking its
toll—these stories reveal the lives of tough-minded girls and boys,
self-reliant women and men, struggling to break out of their lonely lives and
the emotional havoc of their families to make a connection, to build a life
despite the odds. How to Be a Man
falls within the tradition of Maile Meloy, Tom McGuane, and Annie Proulx.
The author
Tamara Linse—writer, cogitator, recovering ranch girl—broke her collarbone when
she was three, her leg when she was four, a horse when she was twelve, and her
heart ever since. Raised on a ranch in northern Wyoming, she earned her
master’s in English from the University of Wyoming, where she taught writing. Her
work appears in the Georgetown Review,
South Dakota Review, and Talking River, among others, and she was
a finalist for an Arts & Letters and Glimmer
Train contests, as well as the Black Lawrence Press Hudson Prize for a book
of short stories. She works as an editor for a foundation and a freelancer.
Find her online at tamaralinse.com and tamara-linse.blogspot.com.
Print and ebook
versions are available for purchase at these and other online retailers. Happy
reading!
4 comments:
Congratulations, Tamara! I'm thrilled for you, and you know why.
Thank you so much! That means so much!
I loved loved your blog post about your publishing experience, BTW (as you know). :-)
Tamara
Congratulations! Publishing is a big deal, exciting and sometimes anxiety-producing. Sounds like an interesting collection of stories. Good luck with marketing and all that goes along with being a published author. Looking forward to hearing about your process in your future posts.
Oh are you on Goodreads?
Cheers,
eLPy
Thank you so much, eLPy! Absolutely exciting and anxiety-producing. I can definitely see how you want a team for marketing a book - cuz it's a lot for one person.
I am on Goodreads, though I haven't been very active. I am planning on remedying that in the near future though.
May your writing flow like the Wyoming wind!
Tamara
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