Rain Taxi’s splendid review of “Going Anywhere”

Isaac Faleschini of Rain Taxi has some neat words to say about Armstrong’s “Going Anywhere,” here’s a few of them:

“David Armstrong’s collection of short stories,Going Anywhere, promises much. Eight of the thirteen stories have won awards from reputable literary publications such as Mississippi Review, the Miriam Rodriguez Short Story Contest, and others. In addition, ten of the thirteen stories have been published in places as diverse as The Magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy and New South. Happily, Armstrong’s prose, characters, and plots deliver on those promises.”

“It isn’t just the characters that keep the pages turning in this collection; the style and slow confidence with which Armstrong delivers his plot twists is exceptional… Armstrong has a knack for rendering the mundane beautiful through lyrical language. Take this sentence from “A Different-Sized Us,” for example: “The well, a little bigger than a manhole, was shadowed by the canted lid from the morning light and looked cool and quiet near the crystalline blades of grass exposed to the sun.” He also processes emotion with deft realism.”

“Good stories promise a feeling that one is continuously being led on a journey, that anything can, and does, happen. Armstrong’s prose wriggles around narrative expectations, which in turn build toward deliberate payoffs. From “Take Care” to “Fifty,” the sensation in reading this book is that one could be “going anywhere.'”

Read the review in full here.

Call for manuscript submissions!

Leapfrog Press is currently reading submissions for our annual fiction contest. We’re proud to welcome author Mark Brazaitis (The Incurables, Truth Poker) as this year’s finalist judge. Check out our submission guidelines, then send us your work.

Once you’ve done that, take a few minutes to check out some recent contest winners.

The Lonesome Trials of Johnny Riles, Gregory Hill (2014 first place winner)

(review of Hill’s previous novel East of Denver)

Going Anywhere, David Armstrong (2013 first place winner)

(review at The Literary Review, “Declarations” at Narrative)

Being Dead in South Carolina, Jacob White (2012 first place winner)

(interview at Crossborder, review at Publishers Weekly)

Have No Fear–Our Fiction Contest Is Here!

At Leapfrog Press we are excited to announce the beginning of our Spring 2015 Fiction Contest! All information on what and how to enter is provided here. We’ll be accepting submissions until May 1st.

We’re delighted to have previous honorable mention receiver and Crossborder contributor  Mark Brazaitis as our finalist judge. Be sure to look for his recently published collection of short stories “Truth Poker” (Autumn House Press).

In the meantime, check out a few of our previous runner-up story collections that we loved, and that have since been published elsewhere:

 

Jason K. Friedman, “Fire Year” (Sarabande Books)

“I Truly Lament: Working Through the Holocaust” by Mathias B. Freese (Wheatmark Publishing)

“Peter Never Came” by Ashley Cowger (Autumn House Fiction)

“Brief Eulogies at Roadside Shrines: Stories” by Mark Lyons (Wild River Consulting and Publishing)

“The Incurables by Mark Brazaitis” (ND Sullivan Prize Short Fiction)

“Send me work: Stories” by Katherine Karlin (Winner of 2011 Balcones Fiction Prize)