Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Bad Kansas: Stories
    Unavailable
    Bad Kansas: Stories
    Unavailable
    Bad Kansas: Stories
    Ebook217 pages3 hours

    Bad Kansas: Stories

    By Becky Mandelbaum

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The eleven beautifully crafted stories in Bad Kansas reveal the complicated underbelly of the country’s most flown-over state and the quirky characters that call it home. In this darkly humorous collection, Kansas becomes a state of mind as Mandelbaum’s characters struggle to define their relationship to home and what it means to stay or leave, to hold on or let go. When a desperate woman finds herself on a date with a rugged man she has nothing in common with, she must decide whether to sacrifice the life of a bear in order to keep the man’s affection. After having a nightmare about a mallard, a young man wakes to discover he’s choking the woman he loves. When his mother starts dating a slimy pizza parlor owner, a young boy must choose whether to align with his mischievous older brother or remain loyal to his mom. The deeply appealing and peculiar characters in Bad Kansas are determined to get what they want, be it love or sex or power, in a world intent on denying them.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Georgia Press
    Release dateSep 15, 2017
    ISBN9780820351292
    Unavailable
    Bad Kansas: Stories
    Author

    Becky Mandelbaum

    Becky Mandelbaum is the author of Bad Kansas, winner of the 2016 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and the 2018 High Plains Book Award for First Book. Her work has appeared in One Story, The Sun, The Missouri Review, The Georgia Review, Electric Literature, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and has been featured on Medium. She has received fellowships from Writing by Writers, a residency from The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and has taught at Seattle’s Hugo House. Originally from Kansas, she currently lives in Washington State. The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals is her first novel.

    Read more from Becky Mandelbaum

    Related to Bad Kansas

    Titles in the series (63)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Short Stories For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      My father MY HERO

      Apr 30, 2020

      My father MY HERO
      4 min read

    • Article

      Happy Endings

      Sep 1, 2023

      Happy Endings
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips

      Jun 10, 2020

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Superhero in a Human’s Body

      Nov 20, 2020

      IN A ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW PUBLISHED IN 1985, Prince told writer Neal Karlen about a pivotal moment in his life: the time his father kicked him out of the house. From a pay phone, Prince pleaded with his dad to take him back: “He still said no. I s

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Inherited Imagination

      Aug 18, 2020

      The Inherited Imagination
      9 min read

    • Article

      Cosmic Mindlessness

      Jul 27, 2017

      Cosmic Mindlessness
      2 min read

    • Article

      Life After Death

      May 27, 2022

      Life After Death
      14 min read

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      When Conroy Met King

      Sep 12, 2019

      When Conroy Met King
      9 min read

    • Article

      Body Language

      Aug 14, 2019

      Body Language
      5 min read

    • Article

      Righteously Weird

      Jun 20, 2023

      Righteously Weird
      4 min read

    • Article

      These Bad Things

      Dec 23, 2019

      These Bad Things
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Nonfiction No. 11

      Dec 7, 2021

      The Art of Nonfiction No. 11
      26 min read

    • Article

      His Last Gift

      Nov 25, 2023

      His Last Gift
      6 min read

    • Article

      Porochista Khakpour on Stephen Dixon: An Excerpt from McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #63

      Aug 4, 2021

      When you really live, and when you really tackle that life in your art, the pages never quite end. The narration might drop out, but the story is still in motion. If done right, the border blurs, the boundaries of life and of art fade into each other

      8 min read

    • Article

      Stranger Than Fiction

      Jul 20, 2021

      Stranger Than Fiction
      7 min read

    • Article

      I Met Fear on the Hill

      Dec 15, 2018

      It’s the summer of 1966, and Sheila and Peter are a young married couple living in Berkeley. They are very much in love, and also very high—tripping on acid for the first time in their lives, in Tilden Park—walking in a shallow stream full of primord

      32 min read

    • Article

      It All Began…

      Dec 1, 2021

      It All Began…
      3 min read

    Reviews for Bad Kansas

    4.5/5

    5 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      'Bad Kansas' is an astonishing and entertaining collection of quirky, bizarre, sad and humorous short stories that all deal with Kansas, though in very different manners. There are a lot of different constellations: people who left (fled?) their home state, others who experience a bad case of home sickness after leaving, those who moved there for a job or love and either like or hate it. Through this kaleidoscope of anecdotes, we learn about that seemingly common state, that was known to me only as the home of Dorothy.While I can't remember any of the stories in detail, I remember the feeling the stories evoked, a kind of bond with that place, both good and bad.(Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of the book, all opinions are my own)