Newman's electric debut collection (after the memoir Still Points North) follows hardscrabble women in Alaska whose rough exteriors conceal myriad vulnerabilities. In "Howl Palace," a 67-year-old woman who goes by "Dutch" has gone through five husbands and grieved the loss of one too many of the black Labs she's cared for over the years in place of having children. Now, she's forced to put her beloved house up for sale. Though she knows any buyer will tear it down, she starts preparations for an elaborate open house feast, during which longtime crush Carl arrives to drop off a sick dog. In the captivating title story, newlywed Katrina avoids husband Carter at a party thrown by her best friend, Neil, where guests vault over the massive skull of a mastodon. Searching for Katrina, Carter reflects on how she "shot into his life like a blond, carnivorous meteor" when they met in New York City, and considers how she left behind her past life. Here and throughout, Newman's prose is both distinctive and efficient. In the dark and poignant "Slide and Glide," unemployed Bobby thinks his wife is cheating and suggests they take their family to a cabin in winter, a desperate and dangerous move that serves as a summation of how he's moved through life. The author's crisp portrayal of the Alaskan landscape and rugged culture holds the collection--and its magnetic characters--together. Newman firmly establishes herself as a talent with these stunning stories. (Apr.)

After debuting with the multi-award-finalist Godshot, Bieker returns with stories of Heartbroke characters whose loves and losses unfold in California's sunstruck Central Valley. Former Wallace Stegner Fellow Folk debuts with a collection of absurdist stories, including Out There, a piece published in The New Yorker about a woman whose attempts to use a dating app are disrupted by incredibly handsome yet artificial men deployed by Russian hackers. Acquired in a two-book deal that includes his debut novel, NYU Starworks fellow Friedlander's The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land is set in Israel and the Middle East and features outsiders who must contend with past sorrow or future uncertainty. A second collection after Light Lifting, which was short-listed for Giller, Commonwealth, and Frank O'Connor honors, MacLeod's Animal Person explores those moments when one's life is about to change (25,000-copy first printing). From poet Mirosevich, also author of the award-winning nonfiction Pink Harvest, Spell Heaven offers linked stories about a lesbian couple finding happiness in a coastal town. From Newman, whose memoir Still Points North was a finalist for the National Book Critic Circle's John Leonard Prize, Nobody Gets Out Alive highlights women struggling to get by in rugged Alaska (50,000-copy first printing). Witchcraft, blue jaguars, and a California rainforest-set novella starring Maria, Maria and possibly more Marias all feature in this mystical debut from former PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow Rubio.

Alaska native Newman (Still Points North, 2013) returns to her roots in her debut short story collection set mostly in and around Anchorage. A character in the title story theorizes, "Your average happy person didn't last in Alaska. It was too much work not to die all the time." Whether they live back in the early days, when the town was just a railroad camp, or during the 1970s and '80s, or in the present, Newman's mostly female characters navigate the dangers of the natural world alongside the pervasive threats of sexual violence, addiction, and despair. Some try but fail to leave Alaska, while others arrive there via the Alcan Highway, seeking a new start but, instead, finding both the journey and the destination to be more than they bargained for. While the stories can stand alone, they are loosely connected as characters appear as minor figures in one story and protagonists in another. The opener, "Howl Palace," has won multiple accolades, including The Paris Review's Terry Southern Prize, but all the stories are standouts, and readers, especially fans of Annie Proulx and Elizabeth Strout, will find much to appreciate in Newman's unforgettable collection.

Eight gritty, harrowing stories of bravery and bluster set in the wilds of Alaska. The women in this absorbing debut collection are larger than life, perhaps because this is what the harsh Alaska landscape demands. Dutch, the narrator of "Howl Palace" (selected for The Best American Short Stories), is selling her house after a string of unsuccessful marriages. Plucky and tough, she installs herself in the mysterious "wolf room" during the open house, and the devastating reasons for her resourcefulness come into sharper focus. In "High Jinks," Jamie and Katrina, just tweens, have to fend for themselves on a father-daughter float trip after both their dads fail them in emotional and material ways. The 73-page "Alcan, an Oral History" follows a single mother and her two children and two women, friends and recent college grads, both groups headed overland to Alaska, and how their lives are forever altered when their paths converge. The fabled frontier is often depicted as a redemptive space, but Newman's characters can't outrun their problems. In "Slide and Glide," a standout, a father takes his family on an epic ski trip to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, hoping to rekindle his marriage only to realize how powerless he is. That's also true for Genevieve, a rebellious heiress who discovers that early-20th-century Alaska is every bit as socially restrictive as Milwaukee. These stories are rich with wit and wisdom, showing us that love, marriage, and family are always bigger and more perilous adventures than backcountry trips. "Was this marriage," a newlywed wonders after witnessing his wife lusting after another man, "how well the worst in you worked with the worst in the other person?" Bighearted stories of domestic discord by a writer with a cleareyed view of Alaska's romance and hardscrabble realism. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.