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About one woman’s fine, hard life at the racetrack, Kick the Latch–with its ruthless concision and artful mysteries–is lightning in a bottle Kathryn Scanlan’s Kick the Latch vividly captures the arc of one woman’s life at the racetrack—the flat land and ramshackle backstretch; the bad feelings and friction; the winner’s circle and the racetrack bar; the fancy suits and fancy boots; and the “particular language” of “grooms, jockeys, trainers, racing secretaries, stewards, pony people, hotwalkers, everybody”—with economy and integrity. Based on transcribed interviews with Sonia, a horse trainer, the novel investigates form and authenticity in a feat of synthesis reminiscent of Charles Reznikoff’s Testimony. As Scanlan puts it, “I wanted to preserve—amplify, exaggerate—Sonia’s idiosyncratic speech, her bluntness, her flair as a storyteller. I arrived at what you could call a composite portrait of a self.” Whittled down with a fiercely singular artistry, Kick the Latch bangs out of the starting gate and carries the reader on a careening joyride around the inside track.

"The searing strokes of this book remind me of the infinitude inside every life." --Leslie Jamison Paris Review Staff Pick, one of Chicago Tribune's 25 Hot Books of Summer, and one of The A.V. Club's 15 Most Anticipated Books of 2019 A stark, elegiac account of unexpected pleasures and the progress of seasons Fifteen years ago, Kathryn Scanlan found a stranger’s five-year diary at an estate auction in a small town in Illinois. The owner of the diary was eighty-six years old when she began recording the details of her life in the small book, a gift from her daughter and son-in-law. The diary was falling apart—water-stained and illegible in places—but magnetic to Scanlan nonetheless. After reading and rereading the diary, studying and dissecting it, for the next fifteen years she played with the sentences that caught her attention, cutting, editing, arranging, and rearranging them into the composition that became Aug 9—Fog (she chose the title from a note that was tucked into the diary). “Sure grand out,” the diarist writes. “That puzzle a humdinger,” she says, followed by, “A letter from Lloyd saying John died the 16th.” An entire state of mourning reveals itself in “2 canned hams.” The result of Scanlan’s collaging is an utterly compelling, deeply moving meditation on life and death. In Aug 9—Fog, Scanlan’s spare, minimalist approach has a maximal emotional effect, remaining with the reader long after the book ends. It is an unclassifiable work from a visionary young writer and artist—a singular portrait of a life revealed by revision and restraint.

Named a Best Book of 2020 by The Guardian, Southwest Review, and Publishers Weekly "[The stories] are short, but their mood and imagery are lasting, and reflective of brutal truths of the commerce of human civilization . . . chilling, finely tuned pieces on power and survival." --Los Angeles Times A collection of innovative and ambitious short stories from a visionary young literary artist In The Dominant Animal—Kathryn Scanlan’s adventurous, unsettling debut collection—compression is key. Sentences have been relentlessly trimmed, tuned, and teased for maximum impact, and a ferocious attention to rhythm and sound results in a palpable pulse of excitability and distress. The nature of love is questioned at a golf course, a flower shop, an all-you-can-eat buffet. The clay head of a man is bought and displayed as a trophy. Interior life manifests on the physical plane, where characters—human and animal—eat and breathe, provoke and injure one another. With exquisite control, Scanlan moves from expansive moods and fine afternoons to unease and violence—and also from deliberate and generative ambiguity to shocking, revelatory exactitude. Disturbances accrue as the collection progresses. How often the conclusions open—rather than tie—up. How they twist alertly. No mercy, a character says—and these stories are merciless and strange and absolutely masterful.

This anthology collects original writing and art by novelists, poets, and academics about their pets, including a killer chihuahua, a catatonic toy poodle, a contraband cat, a backyard full of endangered desert tortoises, five forgotten parakeets, and a skinny ex-racehorse named Joe. From legends like Ann Beattie and Christine Schutt to cult figures like Scott McClanahan and Tao Lin, this anthology collects writing from some of today's best literary talent. Edited by Jordan Castro with contributions by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Ann Beattie, Raegan Bird, Blake Butler, Ryan C. K. Choi, Michael W. Clune, Patty Yumi Cottrell, Annie DeWitt, Chelsea Hodson, Yuka Igarashi, Kristen Iskandrian, Mark Leidner, Tao Lin, Scott McClanahan, Sarah Manguso, David Nutt, Precious Okoyomon, Sam Pink, Nicolette Polek, Kathryn Scanlan, Christine Schutt, and Mallory Whitten.

Sonia, una entrenadora de caballos de carrera, le cuenta su vida a una escritora. La escritora toma esas entrevistas y extrae lo esencial: la voz, el tono, los giros del lenguaje, el núcleo emocional de cada anécdota. Corta, descarta, monta, vuelve a editar. El resultado es Yo sé lo que sé, un destilado en el que la vida de Sonia se nos revela condensada y, a la vez, expresada en su máxima pureza. El primer caballo, las caídas y los golpes, la tenacidad; el hacerse de abajo en un mundo de hombres regido por lógicas absolutamente propias; el maltrato, el abuso, el esfuerzo; la consagración al conocimiento de cada animal, cada pista, hasta que un día, con un corte seco, la vocación llega a su fin. En este libro tan impactante como breve, Kathryn Scanlan se revela como una escritora singularísima, que Daniela Bentancur traduce por primera vez al español con precisión y maestría.

The twelfth issue of Caketrain, featuring new work from Kirstin Allio, Riley Bingham, Laurie Blauner, Bridget Brewer, Ryan Call, J'Lyn Chapman, Jessica Comola, Yonca Karakas Demirel, Alexandra Dillard, Zachary Doss, Sarah Rose Etter, Brian Evenson, Kelsie Hahn, Joel Hans, Ya-Wen Ho, Dan Ivec, Jacqueline Kari, Davy Knittle, Alyce Knorr, Darby Larson, Gary Lutz, Elizabeth Mikesch, JoAnna Novak, Kim Parko, Vanessa Place, Jessica Poli, Nick Francis Potter, Daniel Wessler Riordan, Sally Rodgers, Freddy Ruppert, Kathryn Scanlan, May-Lan Tan, Adam Veal, Vanessa Angelica Villarreal, Rae Winkelstein, Timothy Wojcik. Edited by Amanda Raczkowski, Joseph Reed, Tanner Hadfield and Katy Mongeau.

"Boxenstart" erzählt das faszinierende Leben von Sonia, einer Pferdetrainerin aus dem Mittleren Westen, die sich in der rauen Welt der amerikanischen Rennbahnen ihren Platz erobert. »Dieser Roman enthält alles: harte Arbeit, Gewalt, Leidenschaft und Freude. Scanlan schreibt über das gewöhnliche Leben auf außergewöhnliche Weise, indem sie es radikal verdichtet, so wie man Kohlenstoff zu Diamanten presst.« The New Yorker »Ein Highlight des Jahres.« The Guardian »In kurzen, eindrucksvollen Kapiteln taucht Boxenstart ein in die so fremde Welt des Galopprennsports, erzählt von Renntagen, an denen man um vier Uhr morgens aufsteht und um Mitternacht ins Bett geht, von Hufschlägen und Pferdebissen. Doch wie so oft lauert die eigentliche Gefahr bei den Menschen.« L’Humanité Lebendig, pointiert und voller Integrität fängt Kathryn Scanlan das Leben einer Frau auf der Rennbahn ein: das flache Land, die baufälligen Stallanlagen, die miesen Erlebnisse und Reibereien; aber auch das Siegerpodest und die Rennbahnbar, die schicken Anzüge, die Lebenskünstler – und die ganz besondere Sprache der »Stallburschen, Pferdepfleger, Jockeys, Trainer, Stewards, Arbeitsreiter, Pferdeführer – allen«. Die Pferdetrainerin Sonia gibt es wirklich. Scanlan hat viele Gespräche mit ihr geführt und aus den Aufzeichnungen dieser Gespräche einen reduzierten, tief bewegenden Roman geformt. Damit ist "Boxenstart" gleichzeitig auch eine intensive Reflexion über Form und Authentizität, oder wie Scanlan sagt: »Ich wollte Sonias eigenwillige Sprache, ihre Unverblümtheit und ihre Begabung als Geschichtenerzählerin bewahren – aber auch verstärken und zuspitzen. Dabei ist etwas entstanden, das man als das collagierte Porträt eines Selbst bezeichnen könnte.« »Eine bewegende Darstellung dessen, was es bedeutet, ein Mensch zu sein. So rasant wie ein Vollblutpferd.« Le Temps »Kathryn Scanlan ist durch ihre Kunst der Kürze zu einer der interessantesten Stimmen der amerikanischen Literatur geworden.« Les Inrocks Ausgezeichnet mit dem Gordon Burn Prize für innovative Literatur