This Is the World

In this first collection of short fiction, renowned American Indian writer W. S. Penn reveals a writing life that has been both difficult and fortunate. Penn has moved away from conventional narrative methods, through what his own oral tradition encompasses, to arrive at telling stories as they must be told as opposed to the ways they might be told. In This Is The World, Penn moves through spaces, encounters characters, and confronts humanity with a sage's omnipotence, yet at the same time with an unassuming voice, devoid of pretentiousness. His words are unflinching, but also unselfconscious. Although sometimes sad, This Is The World describes the tensions and problems that arise between the subtle clashes of culture and gender with a good deal of humor, both background and foreground, which makes this collection essential to those who love the craft of storytelling itself.

William S. Penn received a 2003 Distinguished Faculty Award from Michigan State University. Bill is the editor of As We Are Now: Mixblood Essays on Race and Identity and The Telling of the World: Native American Stories and Art. He has been the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts award; the North American Indian Prose Award; the Stephen Crane Prize for Fiction; a Michigan Arts Council award; and Writer of the Year (1997) and Editor of the Year (1998), both from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. His book The Telling of the World: Native American Stories and Art was named to the list of Best University Press Books of 2000. and he received the American Book Award for Literary Merit for Killing Time With Strangers.