Description

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Set over the course of one winter at a hospital in Washington, Across the River is a linked series of stories about the trials of the body and their meaning for the spirit. From the psychology of brain surgeons, to a suicide who has time to regret his act, to a college student’s first encounter with blood, Across the River brings together separate voices telling the common tale of how thinking beings encounter their own mortality.

About the Author

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WILLIAM OREM writes in multiple genres. His first collection of stories, Zombi, You My Love, won the GLCA New Writers Award, previously given to Sherman Alexie, Alice Munro, Louise Erdrich, and Richard Ford. Other stories and poems of his have appeared in over 100 publications, including The Princeton Arts Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and The New Formalist, and he has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in both genres. His plays have been performed in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Louisville, Buffalo and Boston.

Currently William Orem is Writer-in-Residence at Emerson College. He grew up, however, in and around Washington, D.C., and worked for several years in a clinical psychobiology lab at the NIMH. Those experiences, along with his ongoing work as a popular science writer, formed the basis for the collection, Across the River.

Praise For…

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"Set in a Georgetown hospital, Across the River gets right to the heart. Orem has a keen eye for detail and a rare combination of empathy and equanimity in his approach to his characters. The result is an honest and powerful work."
—Ronald Spatz, Editor, Alaska Quarterly Review