<DIV><p>IChristopher Merkner is a Shirley Jackson for the contemporary Midwest, where the ties of family and community intersect darkly with suburban American life. In these stories, an enraged village gaslights unsuspecting vacationers and a young man delays a impending confession, fondling the nostrils of his mother's pet pig. Sharp and uneasy, for these inheritors of tradition, that which binds them most closely?offering stability and identity and comfort?are precisely the qualities that set them back, pull them down, burden, limit, and ruin them.</p><p><B>Christopher Merkner</B> teaches creative writing at West Chester University. His work has appeared in <I>Black Warrior Review</I>, <I>Cincinnati Review</I>, <I>Fairy Tale Review</I>, <I>Gettysburg Review</I>, <I>New Orleans Review</I>, and <I>Best American Mystery Stories</I>. He and his wife and kids live in West Chester, Pennsylvania.</p><br></DIV>