D o n a l d R a y P o l l o c k [OFFICIAL SITE]

Spanning a period from the midsixties to the late nineties, the stories in Knockemstiff feature a cast of recurring characters who are woebegone, baffled, and depraved—but irresistibly, undeniably real. Rendered in the American vernacular with vivid imagery and a wry, dark sense of humor, these thwarted and sometimes violent lives jump off the page at the reader with inexorable force. . . . Donald Ray Pollock presents his characters and the sordid goings-on with a stern intelligence and a bracing absence of value judgments. . . . Knockemstiff is a genuine entry into the literature of place.

REVIEWS

"Pollock’s voice is fresh and full-throated, and while these stories travel negligible distances, even from one another, the best of them leave an indelible smear." (continued)

- Jonathan Miles, The New York Times

"Donald Ray Pollock’s book of hard-edged, violent short stories is drawing attention to a dilapidated Appalachian town once forgotten." (continued)

- Steven Rosen, The New York Times

"To get an idea of Donald Ray Pollock's astonishing first book, one could try to imagine a drunken punch-up between a redneck Hemingway and an amphetamine-fuelled Raymond Carver." (continued)

-Telegraph

"Knockemstiff is a serious, moving, funny, dark collection. I can't wait for Pollock's first novel to be published." (continued)

-The Living Scotsman

"Damn. Double-damn. Donald Ray Pollock can write short stories that knock you off your feet. I have not had this experience in a long time... and I'm jumpy and anxious to share these stories with anyone who will read them." (continued)

-CounterBalance

"...Knockemstiff is too good of a book for any of that. It’s a great debut, and without a doubt one of the best books published so far this year." (continued)

-NewPages

"The renowned author Joyce Carol Oates has written that one of the little-understood responsibilities of the artist is to bear witness... Donald Ray Pollock has done just that for a way of life rarely acknowledged, and he's done it superbly. " (continued)

-WOSU book critic Kassie Rose with WOSU Public Media

"These stories detonate... Pollock writes with incendiary verbal pyromania.""This is a fantastic debut." (continued)

-Dayton Daily News

"When I picked up Knockemstiff... I was anticipating a good read. But I wasn't prepared for the driving force with which these dazzling stories would plunge me into another place"" (continued)

-The Oregonian

"As chronicled in Donald Ray Pollock's exhilarating debut story collection, Knockemstiff, it's an alternative universe to the American dream." "A great read about a bad place." (continued)

-The Plain Dealer(Cleveland)

"Knockemstiff is a powerful, remarkable, exceptional book that is very hard to read." (continued)

-Los Angeles Times

More reviews

Blurbs

Future Works
Currently in progress is a novel set in 1965, about a serial killer named Arvin Eugene Russell.

Interested in gettin' one of your own? (A book, not a serial killer.) Here are just a few of the merchants selling Knockemstiff.