Promotional Information

Set in rural America amid an epidemic of opiate abuse, this collection of stories tells of a woman’s search for her own peculiar kind of redemption. Addict, thief, and liar, Maggie Boylan is queen of profanity, a hungry trickster. But she is also a woman of deep compassion and strength. Her journey is by turns frightening, funny, and deeply moving.

About the Author

Michael Henson is the author of four books of fiction and four collections of poetry. His prize-winning collection of linked stories, Maggie Boylan (Swallow Press), has been called "an important work of art, beautifully rendered." His stories, poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in Still: The Journal, Appalachian Heritage, and Threepenny Review.

Reviews

"Trouble—much of it self-inflicted—follows Maggie Boylan, the unconventional hero of this powerful novel from Henson (Ransack). Maggie is 'straight as a bullet, foul-mouthed, skinny, death-head-looking, Oxy-addled, thieving'—a folk hero for the fentanyl-ravaged heartland.…Despite its short length, Henson's novel packs a punch: it's harrowing, haunted, and often beautiful." (Publishers Weekly) "Henson's stories are focused, relentless, and beautifully written.… I read every word of this book, and read it slowly. [Maggie is] a failure at almost everything—yet Henson allows her the subtlest of redemptions.…What a balancing act these stories are. It's the best book I've read all year." "Michael Henson is one of the finest authors of literary fiction writing today. His Maggie Boylan stories give voice to those among us who are seldom heard. Maggie Boylan is an important work of art, beautifully rendered." "Henson gets to the heart of working class and underclass people in ways that break your heart and then put it together again through the power of his art." "A devastating short fiction collection about the incestuous relationship between local law enforcement and drug dealers as well as the clients they both share—hapless and resourceful addicts, of which Maggie is queen. Henson's collection is easily the best fictional account of the widespread meth and Oxy wreckage in Appalachia since Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone." Praise for Michael Henson's A Small Room with Trouble on My Mind:
"Michael Henson is the Philip Levine of the urban Appalachian working class. His writing is so immediate that you feel the vibrations of guitar strings and sirens, smell beer and sweat, and hear broken glass crunch under your feet. Nothing is pretty in this world, but much is beautiful, seen through Henson's compassion for his characters and his clarity about generations wrecked by capitalism without conscience." "Every now and again I happen upon a writer who slays me. A writer whose stories resonate with truths so raw, they leave me aching for the characters and the community they inhabit. Michael Henson's Maggie Boylan is such a book. Henson is a master along the lines of William Gay. Maggie will haunt you."