Kim Addonizio is the author of a previous story collection, In the Box Called Pleasure; two novels Little Beauties and My Dreams Out in the Street; five poetry collections; and two books on writing poetry. She recently collaborated with woodcut artist Charles D. Jones on My Black Angel: Blues Poems and Portraits. She has received numerous honors for her writing, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and two NEA Fellowships, and was a National Book Award Finalist in 2000. She lives in Oakland, CA and New York City and teaches private writing workshops in person and online. She plays harmonica with the word/music group Nonstop Beautiful Ladies and volunteers for The Hunger Project, a global organization empowering the poorest people in the world to end their own hunger and poverty. Visit her at kimaddonizio.com.
Praise for The Palace of Illusions
"The short stories here are so tight and polished that it's hard to
believe that this is only Addonizio's second
collection...strikingly honest depictions of characters...A highly
enjoyable collection with something for everyone; recommended for
readers of Lydia Davis or fans of modern fairy tales." --Library
Journal "The 14 stories in this new collections range from realist,
contemporary narratives to darkly comic fairy tales that subtly
complicate the binary oppositions of good versus evil and
contentment versus despair....Addonizio is adept at humanizing
monsters or characters that resemble them...The Palace of Illusions
is a collection of many delights, its mirrors reflecting and
magnifying the contradictions and conflicts inherent in human
experience." --San Francisco Chronicle "A streak of dark humor,
colored with a tinge of pathos..." --Oakland Tribune "Though
Addonizio's characters find themselves in unusual predicaments, she
nonetheless convincingly renders their psyches. The stories are
weighty but unassuming, and readers can identify with the
characters whether they're vampires, carnies, or pet killers. This
book is for those who enjoy sardonic humor, forceful narration, and
a variety of genres." --Publishers Weekly "...[a] lovely short
story collection." --New York Times' Shortlist "Many of the poems
in Tell Me can be read as intensified versions of the barroom
ballad--songs of good and bad love, songs of the allure and the
failure of drink. But regardless of the subject, Kim Addonizio's
poems are stark mirrors of self-examination, and she looks into
them without blinking." --Billy Collins on Tell Me, a Finalist for
the National Book Award "The stories in The Palace of Illusions are
searingly beautiful, evocative, and surprising. Kim Addonizio is a
master who gives the traditional story form a startling twist. From
fairy tales colored by sexual longing to a freshly irreverent
exploration of death, this is a collection in the best tradition of
Robert Coover and Angela Carter." --Katie Crouch, New York Times
bestselling author of Girls in Trucks and Abroad "Poet Addonizio
brings her hip, dark sensibility to a second collection of short
fiction." --Kirkus "Kim Addonizio writes like Lucinda Williams
sings, with hard-earned grit and grace about the heart's longing
for love and redemption, the kind that can only come in the darkest
dark when survival no longer even seems likely." -- Andre Dubus III
"If there's justice in the world, this summer Kim Addonizio is
going to step in where Alice Sebold and her Lovely Bones left
off...Little Beauties encases a real, thumping heart between the
pages. Let the lovefest begin." -- Elle "A wonderfully optimistic,
quirky testament to the power of chance encounters." -- O Magazine
"Like Anne Lamott...Addonizio seems to sense how to pull back from
sentimentality, be it with humor, honesty or clarity of vision." --
Los Angeles Times "I found myself rooting for them -- a real trick
to pull off -- rooting for each, especially that new baby..." --
Alan Cheuse, NPR's All Things Considered "Kim Addoinizio's first
novel is one of those rare books that is both a complete departure
from a writer's previous work and a natural extension of it. Like
her four books of poetry, rawly beautiful examinations of the body
and heart's excesses, Little Beauties tackles tough subjects --
unequipped mothers, the loss of love, mental illness -- with
unflinching clarity, lyricism and humor." -- San Francisco
Chronicle "Kim Addonizio's imagination is like a runaway train
under perfect control. Nuanced, shaded and unshaded, her poems are
bold, brave, respectful of the darkness, perfectly pitched, and
virtually every one reverberates with a kind of wild tenderness.
Lucifer at the Starlite is one of the best reasons to read poetry
today." -- Thomas Lux "Addonizio's poems are like swallows of cold,
grassy white wine. They go down easy and then, moments later, you
feel the full weight of their impact." -Booklist "[A] well-paced,
readable book; Addonizio has a natural gift for pacing. She also
achieves a novelistic detachment rare for poets. She refuses to
romanticize her characters but also never loses sympathy with their
humanity." --Dana Gioia, Washington Post Book World "In Kim
Addonizio's fanciful and witty novel, I can't decide whose voice I
like more: the obsessive compulsive's, the pregnant teenager's, or
the newborn's. Each is great--sharp, funny, and above all
surprising. One thing they all share is their creator's love of
language. These are voices that will continue to resonate long
after you've read the last page of the book." --Jenny McPhee
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