Description: "Have you ever wanted to run away from it all to some dusty little town, change your name to Wanda and wait tables while your life changes chapters? Have you ever felt the need to leave the wife behind, hop a train or hitch a ride and seek out the California sun? Have you ever come home to her clothes gone, her keys, her cat and nothing left there but a hint of her perfume? We've all had those times where we've dreamed it, planned it, lived it. This collection of short stories addresses every variation of running away, wanting to run away, and trying to run away"--
Brief description: Luanne Smith lives in New Jersey, works in Pennsylvania, but she is a born Kentuckian. She is an Associate Professor at West Chester University outside of Philadelphia where she has taught creative writing and film there for nearly 30 years now. Her work, usually short fiction, has appeared in Puerto del Sol, The Oxford Review, The Texas Review and other literary journals.
Review Quotes:
Roseville to Kansas City, Jamaica Plains to Lubbock, the characters in Runaway find new lives. These exciting stories find transformation via spirit, heart, loss, hope and emptiness. Luanne Smith, Michael Gills, and Lee Zacharias have crafted a collection that is at once devastating and utterly magical. This is a collection to be read and re-read, shared in writing workshops and savored. --Karen Salyer McElmurray, author of Wanting Radience