Missing Persons

Missing Persons by Stephanie Carpenter won the 2017 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. These ten stories, all of which were published in literary journals including Crab Orcahrd Review, Nimrod International Journal, and The Missouri Review, offer readers a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people facing out-of-the-ordinary problems—street sweepers sending incomplete messages that a young couple is compelled to decipher; a young woman travels back home with her boyfriend to help him sort through the lives of his deceased parents; a woman smitten with a living-statue artist; and a man finding himself with an unwanted house guest he met through a dating app. George Saunders, author of Tenth of December: Stories, says Missing Persons is “Inventive, magical, compelling, and strange in just the way life and people are strange. Stephanie Carpenter is a rare and wonderful talent.” A native of northern Michigan, Stephanie Carpenter holds an MFA from Syracuse University and a PhD in Creative Writing and American Literature from the University of Missouri. Widely published in literary magazines and journals, Missing Persons is her debut story collection.