Try our Advanced SearchShort stories by Melanie Rae Thon
Melanie Rae Thon’s most recent books are the story collection Silence & Song (Fiction Collective 2, 2015); the chapbook The 7th Man (New Michigan Press, 2015); a fine-art book featuring her poetry and the work of eight visual artists, The Good Samaritan Speaks (Prompt Press, 2015); the novel The Voice of the River (FC2, 2011); and In This Light: New and Selected Stories (Graywolf Press, 2011). Her work has been included in The Best American Short Stories (1995, 1996), three Pushcart Prize anthologies (2003, 2006, 2008), and O. Henry Prize Stories (2006). In 1996, Granta included her in its “Best of the Young American Novelists” issue. Originally from Montana, she now lives in Salt Lake City, where she teaches in the creative writing and environmental humanities programs at the University of Utah.
Listing 2 stories.
An alcoholic hospital janitor with a murky, dark family history meets a capricious woman with even worse substance abuse problems than him. As they get sober and build a relationship, a series of misfortunes at work drives him to confront his painful past and his understanding of death.
Out of sheer desperation, two sex workers break into a vacant home on Christmas, indulging themselves and falling asleep. When one of them wakes up, she finds her companion dead in the bathroom and must decide how to protect herself.