MERCY AND DEBRIS: GREAT PLAINS STORIES

Part of the Flyover Fiction Series, edited by Ron Hansen.

Available for PRE-ORDER from the Publisher and your favorite online booksellers, including IndieBound, Bookshop.org, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Target, Indigo in Canada, Coles Books in the UK, and Readings in Australia. Please consider purchasing this title at your local independent bookstore, top indies like Longfellow Books in Portland, or my hometown shop Content Bookstore.

Wingate’s stories cut a wide swath across the Great Plains from Colorado to South Dakota, revealing skeletons in the psychic landscapes of its characters. By turns stark and beautiful, the stories paint meticulous portraits of a region in flux and the people who must change with it in order to survive. Tender, incisive, and honest, Mercy and Debris gives readers slices of soul-searching life in a region of America that wants the comfort of traditional societal roles but recognizes that the times and its people are changing in ways that can’t be predicted or controlled.

“The stories in Mercy and Debris follow characters as they move, as people do in life, through rage and resignation, exuberance and despair, love and grief, heartbreak and hope. This is an exceptional collection, emotionally powerful and technically brilliant.”

—Larry Watson, author of Let Him Go and The Lives of Edie Pritchard

“Mercy and Debris emerges from the Great Plains and shows why this country is called the Heartland. These stories are all heart, big and wide and shot-through with feeling, showing people and landscapes that are ever-changing and ever-returning to themselves. . . . Each life in these pages is given its full due—funny, tragic, and full of meaning.”

—Maxim Loskutoff, author of Old King and Ruthie Fear

“I love how well Steven Wingate captures the different shades of Midwestern experience and the complexity of the characters. Over and over I found nuggets of clarity and humor that solidified the characters into real people. While some of the stories are bleak, Wingate balances these with moments of hopefulness and those who are looking for real slice-of-life stories with consequence but not resolution."

—Erin Flanagan, author of Deer Season, winner of the 2022 Edgar Allen Poe Award.

please contact Sara Kee at the University of Nebraska Press or Rachel Anderson at RMA Publicity. You can also contact the author directly.