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SALISBURY, MD---Dr. John Wenke, English professor at ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥, explores a roadmap of America as his characters tangle with fraying family ties, while anticipating disasters about to erupt on the post-contemporary tundra in his latest book The Critical List. 

“What’s so attractive about Wenke’s stories is their stare-you-down directness — Wenke’s unflinching, deft (and welcome) conviction about the transportive and redeeming power of what we used to call good old American realism,” said Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize winning contemporary fiction author. 

In this world, people teeter on the edge – a former jailbird under house arrest; a would-be teenage parricide; a former philosophy professor, now homeless, mind blown, living in the subway underground. Wenke’s collection dramatizes what it means to push up against the boundaries of desire, even when one is often turned away, and it reminds us that somewhere in the murk of humanity the balm of comedy occasionally delivers relief.

“These stories showcase smart, resourceful people at the end of their rope, radically reshaping their lives,” said Cary Holladay, author of Brides in the Sky: Stories and a Novella. 

“Within the familiar worlds of home and neighborhood, Wenke uncovers violence, yearning and comedy. Yes, there’s always something funny, even when the situation’s critical. A brilliant collection, where everything is calm until everything explodes.”

Wenke’s past works include J. D. Salinger: A Study of the Short Fiction and Melville's Muse: Literary Creation and the Forms of Philosophical Fiction. His book on Salinger has been featured in the high profile documentary Salinger including a special broadcast on PBS’s American Masters. His scholarship, literary non-fiction and short stories have been published in journals and publications including The Gettysburg Review, Resources in American Literary Studies and Cimarron Review, among others.

“I'm grateful to be able to give these twelve published stories a second life,” said Wenke. “What writers want most of all are readers.” 

The book is available online via Amazon and Target, or directly from its publisher, Regal House Publishing.

For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit .