An antidote to Fathers' Day. Alex Mindt's debut collection goes behind the Hallmark Card and presents the realities and accompanying befuddlement and yearning of fathers and their offspring as they attempt to connect across cultural and generational divides. These stories will make you laugh out loud before they break your heart. The author's gifts have been rewarded with a Pushcart Prize and a Charles Angoff Award for Best Short Story of the Year.

"Pushcart Prize — winner Mindt deftly captures in his debut collection men, and those around them, as they negotiate moral binds rooted in masculinity's unwritten dos and don'ts. A high school chemistry teacher transplanted from Wisconsin to West Texas flunks the star quarterback and incurs the wrath of the townsfolk — and eventually transforms his marriage in the title story. In 'Stories of the Hunt,' a 12-year-old boy on his first deer-hunting expedition with his father recognizes that his father lied about his experience as a courageous woodsman. The African-American dentist of 'An Artist at Work' recognizes too late that his decision to move his family from Boston to a Norman Rockwell suburb has fatally alienated his teenage artist son. Similarly, in 'Free Spirits,' a grown son has to come to terms with his psychotic hospitalized father, who can be as violent as he is sympathetic. Mindt does not present easy choices for his characters, like the heartbroken elderly Mexican-American father in the beautifully composed opener, 'Sabor a Mi': he treks to Taos, N.Mex., on the occasion of his adored daughter's marriage to another woman. Though his characters are distinct, Mindt concentrates less on people than on their conflicts, and the resulting discord is tense and surprising throughout." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Criss-crossing the extremes of the American landscape, these stories ARE America: majestic, salt-of-the-earth, painfully funny and achingly beautiful. A haunting and stunning chronicle of our country and our people; Mindt is a magnificent writer. This book killed me." John Searles, author of Strange But True

"Alex Mindt brings deft hands to deeply affecting matters of dusty grandeur and triumphant endurance." Jacquelyn Mitchard, Author of The Deep End of the Ocean

Clowns, refugees, social climbers, the elderly and the young are all bound by the mysterious ties of fatherhood. Alex Mindt's debut collection of short stories is a chorus of fathers and those they love singing in the many accents of paternal connections that befuddle, ennoble, enrage and endure. Each unique voice rings true and clear with humor and poignancy. Mindt brings compassion, wisdom and a unique sense of the absurd to the ties that binds. His prose will make you laugh out loud before it breaks your heart. His is a remarkable new voice that brings a loving heart, a light touch and truth telling as sharp as a saber blade to stories whose characters live long after their pages are turned.

Alex Mindt has published stories in numerous magazines, including the Missouri Review, Fiction, Confrontation, the Literary Review, and The Sun. His plays have been produced in Seattle and Los Angeles, and he co-wrote, directed, and produced the feature film Nowheresville, which screened at the Cannes Film Festival and on Showtime and won the audience award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival. He has taught at the Gotham Writers' Workshop and Columbia University. Alex holds a BA from the University of Iowa and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University.