Spells for victory and courage

the long version

The characters in Spells for Victory and Courage, winner of the Brighthorse Prize in Short Fiction, search for love and belonging in all the broken places. A teenage girl takes care of her ex-jockey father, and a retired professor befriends the local shepherd. A carnival clown picks a fight with the wrong customer, while a door-to-door saleswoman peddles dreams of grandeur in the shadow of a defunct lumber mill. Although their circumstances differ, these characters all share one thing: their quest for connection in a lonely and fragmented world. Spells for Victory and Courage grabs you by the scruff of the neck and won't let go. "Dana Fitz Gale's voice is buoyantly distinctive but her range of themes and forms is so impressive -- soulful, clever, edgy, heartfelt, ironic -- that this debut collection constitutes an almost magical contradiction: it's deeply archetypal and profoundly original. Every story depicts those human moments that crystallize our perennial longing to love and live with others while staying true to our inexplicably quirky selves. Spells for Victory and Courage shifts masterfully between the traditional and the experimental, and it's one of the finest collections of stories I've read in years."-Debra Monroe, author of My Unsentimental Education. "Burrow down in your seat for a great read. Dana Fitz Gale is a masterful storyteller. With poetic prose that doesn't dally and a hunter's eye for the subtle human acts that change lives. Spells for Victory and Courage is gritty, and more than a little thrilling. Fitz Gale's stories are compassionate and tough. A collection reminiscent of Annie Proulx's best stories."-Debra Magpie Earling, author of Perma Red.