Selected Works1. Novel
The Turk and My Mother
Hilarious and moving, a masterful debut novel about a Milwaukee immigrant family's secret history. 2. Fiction (short stories)
Self Storage and Other Stories
In these nine stories, “the familiar world is both funnier and sadder than it seems.” --Kalamazoo Gazette 3. Creative Non-Fiction
In the Middle of the Middle West: Literary Nonfiction from the Heartland
A rich and comprehensive collection of literary writings about the Midwest. 4. Short Fiction
A Different Plain
Contemporary Nebraska Fiction Writers
Anthology of short fiction by Nebraska writers edited by Ladette Randolph, with an introduction by Mary Pipher |
My WorksThe Turk and My Mother
W.W. Norton & Company Winner of the 2005 John Gardner Book Award Four generations come to vivid life in pages spanning the entire 20th century, from the outer reaches of Siberia to the heartland of America. The sheer, indulgent pleasure of storytelling gives shape to this multi-layered comic novel about an immigrant family's secret history. "With wonderful insights into the immigrant experience--and with a sense of humor that encourages the reader to laugh out loud--Mary Helen Stefaniak tells an unforgettable story." --Eleanor Edmondson, president, Bas Bleu "Stefaniak's easy familiarity with the vernacular idioms of the old country and the new, and her respectful, zestful ear for different voices, create a world . . . at once magical and grounded in reality."--Publishers Weekly "Fans of Amy Tan and Carol Shields will revel in the themes of remembrance, forgiveness, family devotion and forbidden love."--Booklist "The Turk and My Mother is a wild ride through a symphonic family history that carries you breathless with laughter and curiosity to a most satisfying conclusion." --Sandra Scofield, author of Occasions of Sin: A Memoir "The Turk and My Mother sparkles with originality, humor and insight. Mary Helen Stefaniak has a true gift for making the ordinary feel magical and the exotic feel hauntingly familiar. I love this novel!" --Eilzabeth Stuckey-French, author of Mermaids on the Moon "The Turk and My Mother reinvents the family saga and the art of storytelling as we know it." --Lan Samantha Chang, author of Inheritance Self Storage and Other Stories
New Rivers Press Winner of the Wisconsin Library Association’s 1998 Banta Award “Stefaniak puts her characters to the test and watches them exceed themselves.” --David Hamilton, author of Deep River, editor of The Iowa Review “These are transformative tales. . . . The world around us is the same but we are changed, our awareness heightened, our empathy renewed.” --Sharon Oard Warner, author of Deep in the Heart A Different Plain
Contemporary Nebraska Fiction Writers (University of Nebraska Press, 2004), edited by Ladette Randolph, includes the story, "Believing Marina," by Mary Helen Stefaniak. The authors of A Different Plain explore the Midwest, a vastness of small towns, corn, cattle, football, and family businesses. They also venture far afield, to desolate western lives, crowded urban relationships, poignant couplings, comic families, cross-country bus rides, and the worldly idiosyncrasies of characters everywhere. Original, spirited, and surprising, these contemporary stories depict a modern world on the move and extend the tradition of great fiction from Nebraska into the twenty-first century. In the Middle of the Middle West: Literary Nonfiction from the Heartland
(Indiana University Press, 2003), edited by Becky Bradway, includes the essay, “Positively 4th Street,” by Mary Helen Stefaniak. Stefaniak’s "Positively 4th Street" recalls people and events of her Milwaukee south-side neighborhood. It's one of 42 essays that take their inspiration from the Midwest -- not just its physical terrain but its emotional terrain as well. The writers are poets, novelists, filmmakers, and journalists; some came and stayed, some came and left. Others, like Stefaniak, were born and raised in the Midwest. |
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