A short story collection exploring the bounds of contemporary family and how we move forward in a world so often changed by loss.

Lauded by Kevin Wilson as “an exceptional collection that introduces us to an exciting new voice,” The Great American Everything orbits the experiences of relationships, be it brother-to-brother, sister-to-sister, patient-to-caregiver. Rendered with tenderness and a keen eye, these ten stories cut into the ways families approach questions of aging, adoption, loss, and class. A young woman hired to provide accompaniment services to an elder confronts the borders of complicity and friendship; two brothers search for details of their recently deceased grandfather in the desert; a college student faces her friend’s abuser during a door-to-door fundraising campaign.

For fans of Amy Hempel and Rick Moody, these stories, spread over varied landscapes of the South from Memphis to New Orleans, contend with the ways in which the places we live dictate the way we trust and protect our own. Scott Gloden has assembled a precise and moving collection that considers what makes a family, however makeshift or impromptu its design.
Scott Gloden is the winner of the C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize.