W.S. Penn

William S. Penn received a 2003 Distinguished Faculty Award from Michigan State University. Bill is the editor of As We Are Now: Mixblood Essays on Race and Identity and The Telling of t...

This is the World

W.S. Penn

Finalist for the PEN Center Literary Award for Creative Writing, 2002

In this first collection of short fiction, renowned American Indian writer W. S. Penn reveals a writing life that has been both difficult and fortunate. Penn has moved away from conventional narrative methods, through what his own oral tradition encompasses, to arrive at telling stories as they must be told as opposed to the ways they might be told. In This Is The World, Penn moves through spaces, encounters characters, and confronts humanity with a sage's omnipotence, yet at the same time with an unassuming voice, devoid of pretentiousness. His words are unflinching, but also unselfconscious. Although sometimes sad, This Is The World describes the tensions and problems that arise between the subtle clashes of culture and gender with a good deal of humor, both background and foreground, which makes this collection essential to those who love the craft of storytelling itself.