About

Winner, 2014 G.S. Charat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction

These stories portray hardships of characters who come from a variety of backgrounds, especially Native Americans and others from the Pacific Coast. With his vivid descriptions of these characters and their experiences, Williams explores their psyches and personal struggles, but common themes tie these stories together in ways that invite readers to see their own struggles and relationships in new ways.

Author

Evan Morgan Williams has published over forty stories in such magazines as Witness, Kenyon Review, Antioch Review, and ZYZZYVA. He is a graduate of the University of Montana’s MFA program and now lives in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches in the public schools. Thorn is his first book.

Reviews

“Williams has a facility for getting inside characters and exposing their essential isolation and loneliness.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“The protagonists of the 15 stories in Thorn, by Evan Morgan Williams, are a diverse cast: Native American, white, black, Asian; young and old; men, women; rich, poor. Yet Williams, who won the 2014 G.S. Charat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction, with this debut collection, is able to inhabit his protagonists, as well as to empathize with them. This is no mean feat.”
—Karen Uhlmann, The Common

Praise

“Evan Morgan Williams’ stories are mysterious, profound, and sensual. His characters, naked in their yearning—way out there with the water and trees and sky—find new ways of loving in an old, old world. Thorn is a marvelous book.”
—David Allan Cates, author of Ben Armstrong’s Strange Trip Home

“These stories have a beautiful sadness. Whether they are about whites, blacks, or Indians, men or women, young or old, they evince feelings that reveal the colliding of cultures, the wistfulness of various perceptions, and the longing in every human soul. Williams is a master at making small details into major elements and capturing the spirits of his characters with perfect dialogue. Whether about buying whale bones, traveling to pick up a man about to be released from jail, or collecting rocks on the beach, these stories are really about life’s deeper and mysterious elements. Williams opens us to the discord his characters live with and makes us understand what life on the edge means. Thorn is a superb collection.”
—Kent Nelson, author of The Spirit Bird

“Evan Williams’ debut collection of stories, Thorn, is a startling gift with its revelations about the people who inhabit the periphery of society’s vision. Whether it is woman cleaning the bones of a whale, or a mother in search of a lost word in a lost language, Williams brings remarkable insight into their lives and in doing so deepens our understanding of what it means to be counted among the few.”
—Claire Davis, author of Labors of the Heart