New Hampshire’s Nathan Graziano returns with another cast of unforgettable characters in a new linked story collection 23 years after his debut, ‘Frostbite’.
After more than two decades, Manchester writer Nathan Graziano has finally followed up on his debut short story collection, Frostbite (Green Bean Press, 2002). On Oct. 21, Roadside Press, an independent press in Illinois, will publish Graziano’s new book A Better Loser.
In A Better Loser, Nathan Graziano’s new collection of linked short stories, his characters are losing their battles to preserve their dignity and self-respect, which continues to disappear in front of them. Whether facing romantic troubles, addiction, or struggling to keep their passions in check, these characters will not allow their failures to define them—they are learning to become “better losers.” Set in Southern New Hampshire, Graziano introduces readers to a cast that includes amateur magicians, struggling musicians, hirsute giants, runaway teenagers, and restless local journalists. Now, Graziano returns with a new round of working-class tales that combine wry humor and a hard—and sometimes dark—look at the relationships that define us.
Exeter’s Todd Hearon—the author of Do Geese See God and Crows in Eden and a musician whose recent album Yolelady has received critical acclaim—has praised Graziano’s new book.
“Reading Nathan Graziano’s latest collection of interlocking stories is a little like waking in a morning-after fog, with the sinking realization that the stranger crashed beside you in the bed happens to be you,” Hearon writes. “It’s that dire—and it’s funny as hell. Graziano’s eye is at once relentless and sympathetic, and his style is an accelerometer, attuned to the subtlest of emotional vibrations; he wears his fuckups, wayward kids and dysfunctional adults, like a second skin. The biggest win (to my mind) of A Better Loser is the author’s skill at registering, often simultaneously, the heart-wrenching and hilarious, holding out to the bitter end the sliver of redemption—hard-won and entirely unexpected—that shines like a strand of gold amid the mass of human wreckage. Once the haze of pot smoke, booze and painkillers clears, this cast of losers will stay with you for a long, long time.”
A Better Loser is Graziano’s eleventh full-length book, and in many ways, his most ambitious. He is the author of four other works of fiction, his most recent being the novella Fly Like The Seagull (Luchador Press, 2021) as well as six collections of poetry.
A high school English teacher at Pembroke Academy and an adjunct professor at Southern New Hampshire University, Graziano’s other works include Not So Profound (GBP, 2003) Teaching Metaphors (Sunnyoutside Press, 2007), After the Honeymoon (Sunnyoutside Press, 2009) Hangover Breakfasts (Bottle of Smoke Press, 2012), Some Sort of Ugly (Marginalia Publishing, 2013), My Next Bad Decision (Artistically Declined Press, 2014), Almost Christmas (Redneck Press, 2017) and Born on Good Friday (Roadside Press, 2023).
A graduate of the MFA writing program at The University of New Hampshire, Graziano is also an award-winning columnist for Manchester Ink Link and has contributed nonfiction work in publications such New Hampshire Magazine, The Good Man Project, The Huffington Post and BostonMan Magazine.
The book release is scheduled for Nov. 8 at Pembroke City Limits in Suncook Village.
Nathan Graziano lives in Manchester with his wife, Liz, and a pug named Buster. He is available for readings, signings, speaking engagements or interviews at the contact information below.
For more information on Graziano:
Website: www.nathangraziano.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathangrazianowriter
