Laird Hunt

Teach at Brown. Misc. writings in Conjunctions, Zoetrope, the Guardian, NYT, LAT, WAPO. The Exquisite, Kind One, Neverhome, Zorrie. Guggenheim fellow.

Articles

The 10 best books of February reckon with the past – and present - CSMonitor.com

Mar 27, 2024 | csmonitor.com | Laird Hunt |Tommy Orange |Francis Spufford |Maura Cheeks

Float Up, Sing Down, by Laird HuntIn Laird Hunt’s collection of stories, residents of an Indiana farming community in 1982 go about their routines, with secrets and regrets roiling beneath the surface. “Things grew where they grew and flew where they flew and that was all there was to it,” thinks one character. It’s an assessment that infuses these deeply felt tales.
Float Up, Sing Down: Stories

Feb 29, 2024 | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Laird Hunt

It’s a lovely day in Bright Creek, Indiana, with blue skies and fast-warming sunshine after a round of storms, and residents are out and about — gardening, walking, socializing, getting cars to honk for Reagan, enjoying a little teenage romp in the barn — generally living life in early 1980s small-town America.
The 10 best books of February reckon with the past – and present

Feb 27, 2024 | csmonitor.com | Laird Hunt |Tommy Orange |Francis Spufford |Maura Cheeks

As Black History Month in the United States draws to a close, several of our picks for the 10 best books reflect a reckoning with the history of slavery.
The 10 Best Books Of February Reckon With The Past – And Present - The Christian Science Monitor | Everand

Feb 26, 2024 | everand.com | Laird Hunt

Float Up, Sing Down, by Laird HuntIn Laird Hunt’s collection of stories, residents of an Indiana farming community in 1982 go about their routines, with secrets and regrets roiling beneath the surface. “Things grew where they grew and flew where they flew and that was all there was to it,” thinks one character. It’s an assessment that
Float Up, Sing Down: Stories

Feb 23, 2024 | bookreporter.com | Laird Hunt

In 2021, critically acclaimed author Laird Hunt invited readers to rural Indiana, where he chronicled the mundane, pastoral, glorious life of Zorrie Underwood in ZORRIE. In FLOAT UP, SING DOWN, Hunt returns to the world of hardscrabble, blue-collar Indiana, this time exploring the same town Zorrie calls home through the eyes of 14 of its citizens. In these short, interconnected stories set over the course of a single day, Hunt’s America comes to life.
Shelf Awareness for Readers for Friday, February 16, 2024

Feb 16, 2024 | shelf-awareness.com | Linnea Axelsson |Saskia Vogel |Robin Oliveira |Laird Hunt

Aednan: An EpicShare with friends:Permanent Link:Swedish author Linnea Axelsson and translator Saskia Vogel present an exquisite prose poem or work of poetic fiction in Aednan, the title a Northern Sámi word meaning an amalgam of earth, mother, and land. It's the tale of Ristin and her husband, who experience the tragic loss of their son while migrating with their reindeer across the boundaries created between Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
Resisting sentimentality, Laird Hunt's latest book is an elegy for a lost generation

Feb 7, 2024 | newspub.live | Laird Hunt

Book ReviewFloat Up, Sing DownBy Laird HuntBloomsbury Publishing: 224 pages, $27If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores. Advertisement A little more than a century ago, Sherwood Anderson’s “Winesburg, Ohio” introduced a new kind of American novel: one composed of short stories that share a setting and that elevate, one by one, individual residents for our examination.
Review: Funny and sweet, ‘Float Up, Sing Down’ is perfect for Elizabeth Strout fans

Feb 6, 2024 | sacbee.com | Laird Hunt

A teenager growing up in Reagan-era rural Indiana, Greg Cullen didn't like the "old names." Instead, he preferred "names like Michael, Kevin, Amy, Michelle, John, Rich, Kim, Brian, Tina, Greg and Tod.
Funny and sweet, 'Float Up, Sing Down' is perfect for Elizabeth Strout fans

Jan 31, 2024 | startribune.com | Laird Hunt

A teenager growing up in Reagan-era rural Indiana, Greg Cullen didn't like the "old names." Instead, he preferred "names like Michael, Kevin, Amy, Michelle, John, Rich, Kim, Brian, Tina, Greg and Tod.
Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips review - ravages of the US civil war

Jan 23, 2024 | theguardian.com | Laird Hunt

During a particularly memorable scene in Night Watch, which is set around the American civil war, a little girl is lowered headfirst into an open grave by her mother in order to pull a rifle off a fresh corpse. That this harrowing exploit ultimately proves pointless – the protection offered by the retrieved weapon is insufficient for the danger they face – is emblematic of the book’s unsparing vision.