|
|
|
Poet-Editor-Teacher…
Jeff
Vande
Zande
lives
in
Michigan's
Lower
Peninsula,
in
Midland
with
his
wife,
son,
and
daughter,
where
he
teaches
at
Delta
College.
His
poetry
and
short
stories
have
appeared
in
over
fifty
small
press
magazines
and
journals,
including
College
English,
Passages
North,
Rattle,
Adirondack
Review,
Iron
Horse
Literary
Review,
and
Fugue.
Two
of
his
poems
were
nominated
for
the
1999
Pushcart
Prize,
and
poet
Jim
Daniels
nominated
his
work
for
a
2003
Pushcart.
In
June
of
2001,
March
Street
Press
released
his
chapbook
of
poems
entitled
Transient.
In
2002,
Partisan
Press
released
his
Last
Name
First,
First
Name
Last.
March
of
2003
saw
the
release
of
his
chapbook
of
poems,
Tornado
Warning
(March
Street
Press).
And,
in
2004,
Bottom
Dog
Press
released
a
full-length
collection
of
his
short
stories,
Emergency
Stopping
and
Other
Stories
.
March
Street
Press
also
released
a
chapbook
of
three
of
his
stories
entitled
The
Bridge.
All
three
stories
take
place
around
Michigan's
Mackinac
Bridge.
www.jeffvandezande.com
|
|
|
|
Emergency
Stopping
&
Other
Stories
Paperback,
184
pp.
Bottom
Dog
Press
2004,
ISBN
0-933087-87-X
|
|
Author
Pete
Fromm
has
commented,
"Emer-gency
Stopping
and
Other
Stories
is
a
collection
full,
not
of
characters,
but
of
people,
people
you'll
recognize;
everyday
folk
doing
their
best
to
get
along,
and
Vande
Zande
knows
them
well.
These
good-hearted
stories
are
a
fine
debut
in
what
we
can
only
hope
is
a
long,
long
career."
The
book's
pub-lication
is
supported
in
part
by
a
grant
from
the
Ohio
Arts
Council.
Copies
of
the
book
may
be
purchased
by
sending
$14
to
Bottom
Dog
Press,
PO
Box
425,
Huron,
Ohio
44839
|
|
|
|
|
Into
the
Desperate
Country
Fiction
(March
Street
Press)
|
|
Desperation
hunts
us
all
down
and
corners
each
one
of
us
at
sometime
in
our
lives.
Jeff
Vande
Zande
paints
an
eloquent
portrait
of
this
absolute
desolation
with
great
care
in
his
debut
novel,
the
tale
of
a
man
who
finds
himself
apart
from
society,
driven
to
desperation
by
personal
tragedy.
The
title
of
Jeff
Vande
Zande's
debut
novel,
Into
the
Desperate
Country,
aptly
refers
to
Thoreau's
statement
in
Walden;
that
"the
mass
of
men
lead
lives
of
quiet
desperation."
The
desperation
of
life
on
the
assembly-line
drives
the
hero,
Stanley,
to
his
own
Walden,
a
cabin
by
a
river
near
Gaylord,
Michigan.
Necessity
presses
him
close
to
nature,
where
he
lives
in
a
kind
of
a
blessed
limbo
waiting
for
the
world
to
close
in
on
him.
Unlike
Thoreau,
he
is
about
to
lose
his
cabin
to
a
bank
foreclosure,
so
his
haven
is
in
peril.
He
is
caught
between
looking
for
answers
to
his
dilemma
outside
himself
and
looking
inside
himself
for
the
strength
he
needs
to
find
solutions.
Vande
Zande
does
a
magnificent
job
of
laying
out
the
maze
of
thought
patterns
as
Stanley
figures
out
how
to
get
out
of
the
corner
he
has
painted
himself
into.
If
this
seems
like
another
book
about
love
solving
all
problems-guess
again.
Into
the
Desperate
Country
is
a
chronicle
of
real
humans
in
the
real
world
grasping
at
straws,
making
impulsive
choices,
screwing
up
good
things,
finding
something
real.
Sometimes,
Stanley
tries
to
get
help
from
others,
yet
he
must
eventually
go
back
to
his
own
understanding.
Like
us,
he
must
plan
his
life
or
else
be
pressed
into
making
choices
out
of
despair.
We
are
left
with
his
desperation.
-
Anne
Wolfe
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
