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MFA Student Donald Ray Pollock Signs Book Contract with Doubleday
Donald Ray Pollock started writing short stories about six years ago, while working at the Mead Paper Mill in Chillicothe, Ohio, where he had worked for more than thirty years. A couple of those short stories made their way into the unsolicited manuscript pile at The Journal, Ohio State’s literary journal, and caught the eye of co-editor Michelle Herman, professor in the Ohio State MFA Creative Writing program. Herman encouraged Pollock to join the MFA community, and after several more publications, and much contemplation, Pollock came to realize that "maybe I could do this thing."
As part of the MFA program, Pollock wrote the last half of what would become his soon-to-be published first book, Knockemstiff, a collection of eighteen short stories set in the town of Knockemstiff, Ohio, where Pollock himself grew up. One of these stories, "Lard," was published by the literary journal Third Coast, which was read by an agent in New York. After reading Pollock’s story, the agent contacted him, and encouraged him to sign with Inkwell Management. Pollock signed with them at end of December.
The process of getting from agent to book contract took about three weeks after that. "I just really lucked out," Pollock said, "because by the middle of January I was talking to Doubleday and Scribner and they both wanted the book." Doubleday, the publisher of John Grisham, Chuck Paluhniak and Margaret Atwood, among others, finally won out. Knockemstiff will be published by them in the spring of next year.
"Don is a complete original, shrewdly funny writer whose stories endlessly surprise the reader," said Michelle Herman. "It's hard to understand how such demented lowlife characters can so deeply move us--and the only explanation I can think of is that Don sees the complex humanity to everyone, and the beauty in everything in the world. There is so much sadness and longing and grief in these stories, and there are pure lyric moments in every single one of them that'll take your breath away--plus there's no chance of ever getting through a Don Pollock story without laughing out loud."
