LATEST BOOK
HAIRWAY TO HEAVEN STORIES
Patty Somlo
FINALIST IN THE AMERICAN FICTION AWARDS AND BEST BOOK AWARDS.
“Gentle, affectionate, and genuinely touching stories about the street musicians, immigrants, artists, entrepreneurs, con artists and lovers who live on or near Martin Luther King Boulevard . . . . people who celebrate ‘every bit of brightness’ in their lives, and Patty Somlo makes their stories shine.” – Molly Giles, author of the story collections All the Wrong Places, Creek Walk, and Rough Translations.
“These are kind and funny and erotic and poignant stories about people
trying to find peace and dignity in a perilous world, seeming all the more
poignant at this hour when ‘generosity for all’ is sadly lacking in America.”
– William Luvaas, author of Ashes Rain Down: a story cycle and Going Under.
Weaving together the real and the fantastic, the 15 linked stories in Hairway to Heaven Stories introduce a diverse cast of characters living in a once predominantly African American neighborhood, now in the midst of gentrification.
The collection was published by Cherry Castle Publishing, a Black-owned press “that honors the vibrant multicultural voice of American literature,” embracing work “informed by the social, political and cultural vigor of our times.”
About
Patty Somlo
Patty Somlo has published four books, three short story collections, From Here to There and Other Stories (Paraguas Books, 2010), The First to Disappear (Spuyten Duyvil, 2016) and Hairway to Heaven Stories (Cherry Castle Publishing, 2018); and a memoir, Even When Trapped Behind Clouds: A Memoir of Quiet Grace (WiDo Publishing, 2016). Her three most recent books have been Finalists in the International Book Awards, Best Book Awards, National Indie Excellence Awards, American Fiction Awards and Reader Views Literary Awards. Her short stories, essays and articles have appeared in numerous publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, San Francisco Examiner, Guernica, Gravel, Sheepshead Review, Under the Sun, the Los Angeles Review, The Nassau Review and WomenArts Quarterly, among others, and in over 30 anthologies, including Awake in the World, Volume 2 (Riverfeet Press, 2019), Recreating Our Common Chord (Wising Up Press, 2019), Crossing Class: The Invisible Wall (Wising Up Press, 2018), Lost and Found: Tales of Things Gone Missing (Wagonbridge Press, 2019), and Golden State: Best New Writing from California (Outpost19, 2017). She received Honorable Mention for Fiction in the Women’s National Book Association Contest, was a Finalist in the Parks and Points Fall 2019 Essay Contest and in Adelaide Voices Literary Award for Short Story, and had an essay selected as Notable for Best American Essays 2014. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize multiple times, as well as to Best of the Net. She spent 10 years as a reporter before focusing on literary fiction and creative nonfiction.
Other Books
Honorable Mention in the Reader Views Literary Awards
The daughter of an often-absent career Air Force officer and a depressed alcoholic mother, Patty Somlo grows up constantly on the move. Incapable of finding a permanent home, developing long-term relationships, or even learning to drive, Somlo continues through adulthood adrift. From the lush tropical paradise of Hawaii to fog-shrouded San Francisco and the rugged, wind-swept Washington coast, Somlo explores the places she has lived in order to find her way back home. In this intimate work, she shares with us her deep love of nature and the role it has played in helping her heal. Often funny and deeply moving, this is both a beautifully written, lyrical, personal memoir, and an honest exploration of the challenges and possibilities for psychological healing through the places in our lives.
Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the International Book Awards and the Best Book Awards
The eighteen stories in The First to Disappear offer a new literature that reflects back to us the rapidly changing circumstances of 21st Century life. Moving, yet often funny, Patty Somlo performs magic, slipping seamlessly into the heart of hot-button issues—immigration, terrorism and climate change—while borders between nations and the animal and human realms disappear before our very eyes.
“Patty Somlo offers stories that take us deeper into our humanity, that wonderful place of vulnerability and possibility. Stories presenting glimmers of a more hopeful humanity, the individuals and societies we can be when we open to ourselves and others. Somlo invites fresh perspectives on our human realities—and who we can be when we peacefully confront our quandaries.”–Kimberlyn David, editor of Nonviolence magazine and former editor at Paraguas Books.
There is magic and heartbreak in Patty Somlo’s stories.
Andrew Lam,
author of East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres
Additional Praise for Patty Somlo’s Books
From Here to There and Other Stories
“In beautiful, subtle prose, Patty Somlo captures the existential heartaches and joys intrinsic to contemporary life. Boldly weaving together the real and the fantastic, she writes of characters who find redemption in unexpected ways and places as they struggle with complex, ever-changing issues of immigration, revolution, race, class, love, family ties, technology, and war.” Janice Eidus, author of The War of the Rosens and The Last Jewish Virgin.
