CANR

• Liquid, Fragile, Perishable Melville House (Brooklyn, NY), 2024

• Carolyn Kuebler website - https://www.carolynkuebler.com/

  Carolyn Kuebler’s debut novel, Liquid, Fragile, Perishable, is forthcoming from Melville House in 2024. Carolyn was a co-founder of the literary magazine Rain Taxi and for the past ten years she has been the editor of the New England Review. Her stories and essays have been published in The Common and Colorado Review, among others, and “Wildflower Season,” published in The Massachusetts Review, won the 2022 John Burroughs Award for Nature Essay. She has published dozens of book reviews, small-press profiles, and author interviews in Publishers Weekly, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi, City Pages, and others.

  Originally from Allentown, Pennsylvania, Carolyn has an MFA from Bard College and a BA from Middlebury College. She worked for years as a bookseller at Borders Book Shop in Minneapolis and the Hungry Mind in St. Paul, before heading to New York, where she was an editor at Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. In addition to editing NER, she is currently a justice of the peace, a volunteer with 350 Vermont, a bad bird-watcher, and an even worse gardener. She lives in Middlebury with her husband, Christopher, and daughter, Vivian Ross.

• Massachusetts Review - https://www.massreview.org/node/9956

  10 Questions for Carolyn Kuebler
  DECEMBER 9, 2021 - BY EDWARD CLIFFORD

  Look, I'm alive. And this park, Wright Park it's called—a scrappy woodland just a half mile down the road from my home—is alive too, living and dying at once, whether I'm there to see it or not.
  —from "Wildflower Season," Volume 62, Issue 3 (Fall 2021)

  Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
  I have boxes full of notebooks of various kinds—diaries with a tiny lock and key, black-and-white speckled Mead notebooks, plaid clothbound books with too-tight bindings, and sleek Moleskines. These are full of barely legible writing that has always felt like a lifeline to me, the only way to make any sense of the overwhelming chaos of just living and being and the relentless passage of time. They are rough records of the most concentrated thought and feeling but also of everyday life: Today I did this. One of my very first pieces of writing, then, would have to be the lockable diary with Ziggy on the cover, and a speech bubble saying, “Afterthoughts to think about.” That phrase always bothered me, but I filled the book nonetheless.

  What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
  Virginia Woolf is behind everything somehow, but I’ve read so many thousands of published and unpublished works for the New England Review that of course I’ve been influenced by them too, their moments of ingeniousness, their subtle mistakes, the brilliant phrases buried in an otherwise shaky piece of work, and the pieces that make the contents of my mind shift around, both painfully and pleasurably.

  What other professions have you worked in?
  Apart from several obligatory food service gigs, almost all my “professions” have been in some way related to words and type. Not long after that first piece of writing came my first profession: “paperboy” for the Morning Call, which was a job I did before sunrise through most of high school. The smell of wet ink on newsprint, cool morning air in all weather, that tired, burning sensation behind my eyes can bring it all back. It was miserable and yet I loved it, probably because I had the illusion of being the only person awake in the whole world, walking up and down the hills of the West End of Allentown in the quiet as the sky changed color.

  What inspired you to write this piece?
  I wanted to put into words all that goes on when it appears nothing is happening and nobody is going anywhere. To give shape to the repetition and variation of a particular path I kept walking, and to the repetitions that are my life, which to me never seems static at all. I first thought of calling it “Staying Put,” because I was both frustrated and enthralled by my own small world, but then it grew into more than that. Ultimately, I just I wanted to move all of this out of the closed circuit of journal writing and into a shape that pleased me and that others could possibly read.

  Is there a city or place, real or imagined, that influences your writing?
  My adopted home is all over my writing of recent years. Vermont, its history, its identity, its people, its plants. Of course it’s much more complicated than our department of tourism would have you believe. I’m not a real Vermonter. I haven’t hiked Camel’s Hump since college and I’ve never hunted deer or done any maple sugaring. And yet it feels like home to me. Behind this current place are the places I left behind: Allentown, PA, first and foremost; Minneapolis after that; then a little bit of Brooklyn.

  Is there any specific music that aids you through the writing or editing process?
  I love this question, especially since I mention a playlist in the Mass Review essay but made myself cut out all the details. I figured listing the songs would be about as useful as describing the details of a dream. But since you asked, the playlist began with “On My Block” by Scarface and ended with “Complicit” by the Weather Station, with Wye Oak, U2, Dreamers’ Circus, and Troye Sivan in between. “Stop This Train” by Joshua Redman is one of very few pieces that’s perfect for both running and writing, with its lift and drive but not too much of it. And I would be remiss to not mention Max Richter, who has dominated my writing playlists for centuries now. Whenever I need to change up that playlist I turn to my friend Hugh Coyle, who is writing the longest, most complicated novel of anyone I know and has discovered enough music to last a lifetime, especially for those of us who like to listen on repeat.

  Do you have any rituals or traditions that you do in order to write?
  The usual: coffee and the early morning. Headphones for music and to block out the rest of the house. Avoid the internet. When I fall out of the habit, which is often, I make myself record how much time I spent at my desk each morning, telling myself, come on, you can do a half hour every day, can’t you? If I can start with that it inevitably turns into more.

  Who typically gets the first read of your work?
  Depends! For my shorter and time-sensitive pieces it’s usually my husband, Christopher Ross, who’s a ridiculously talented writer, reporter, and editor and can be counted on for an honest, precise, and loving response. For my novel, I turned to the brilliant and compassionate fiction writer Leslie Bazzett, right from the beginning, because I knew somehow she would get it but would also be able to detect the weaker points. And I’ve recently rediscovered the intelligent bounty of my friends from college—Alix MacGowan, Meghan Laslocky, and Liz Monson, in particular—and my sister-songwriter Anne O’Brien. They each bring something different and essential.

  What are you working on currently?
  I just finished a round of revisions on a novel that I still love most days, and that I hope my agent and co-conspirator Jaclyn Gilbert will be sending out later this fall. I’ve also got an essay in the works, and a short story that takes place in a state park campground, because I don’t think I’ve ever read a story in that setting and it’s such a weird one—all those people with their tents and campers and cars, their conversations at picnic tables, all out in the open like that.

  What are you reading right now?
  Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Yes, me and so many others. The owner of the Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury says it’s their bestselling book of all time, at 400 copies and counting, beating out even Harry Potter. A Rain Taxi reviewer said that this book “has changed everyone I know who has read it.” There’s so much clear-eyed wisdom here about living through natural and cultural devastation (indigenous people already did this once)—so many lessons but also so much beauty, specificity, and active hope. I’m also reading Genevieve Plunkett’s debut story collection, Prepare Her. We published two of these stories in NER, she’s a fellow Vermonter, and I admire her sensibility, eeriness, and concision so very much. Next I’m going to read the print issue of the Massachusetts Review, cover to cover.

  CAROLYN KUEBLER'S writing has appeared in The Common, The Literary Review, Rain Taxi, and The Little Magazine in Contemporary America. She lives in central Vermont where she edits New England Review, serves as a justice of the peace, and is the mother of a teenager who reads books.

• Middlebury - https://www.middlebury.edu/announcements/2013/02/carolyn-kuebler-become-editor-new-england-review

  Carolyn Kuebler to become editor of the New England Review
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  February 6, 2013

  Carolyn Kuebler and Stephen Donadio
  MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Middlebury College has announced the appointment of Carolyn Kuebler as editor of the New England Review, a quarterly literary journal published by the college. She will assume her new responsibilities in January 2014, when Stephen Donadio steps down from his role as editor, a position he has held since 1994. Until the end of the year Kuebler will continue to serve in her current position as managing editor while preparing for the transition.

  Since her arrival as managing editor in 2004, Kuebler has worked closely with Donadio to select fiction, nonfiction, poetry and translations for publication in the New England Review. She coordinates the production, marketing, fundraising and design of the literary quarterly, including its website. Kuebler initiated the NER Vermont Reading Series and NER’s internship program for Middlebury students, and also currently advises independent undergraduate projects in writing and publication.

  “Carolyn was the obvious choice to take the reins at NER,” said Tim Spears, Middlebury College vice president for academic affairs. “In her work as managing editor, she has been open to new literary voices and enhanced the publication’s ability to provoke thoughtful discussion. She is ideally suited to maintain NER’s reputation as one of the nation’s most distinguished literary journals.”

  Kuebler earned a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury in 1990, majoring in English with a concentration in Italian, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Bard College in 2001. She was the founding editor and publisher of Rain Taxi, a quarterly book review publication based in Minneapolis, and subsequently served as associate editor at Library Journal in New York. She has published book reviews, critical essays, and short fiction in numerous journals and newspapers, and has recently completed a novel.

  <p>Carolyn Kuebler and Stephen Donadio at work in NER's offices.</p>
  Carolyn Kuebler and Stephen Donadio at work in NER’s offices.
  “I’m excited about the opportunity to lead NER into its next phase, responding to changes in reading habits and technology, but also continuing to offer readers a magazine that demands and rewards their full attention,” said Kuebler. “I look forward to further strengthening the journal’s connections to the college, the students and our broader community as well.”

  Spears praised Donadio’s leadership over the last two decades. “Stephen’s careful editing has helped to bring out the best in NER’s writers,” said Spears. “His unique eye for contemporary literature has helped make NER one of the top literary magazines in the country.”

  While at NER, Donadio has published the work of some of the best new poets and fiction writers, in addition to memorable translations, plays and nonfiction of all kinds, including letters from abroad, historical explorations, and cultural criticism. In just the past decade, 21 poems published in NER appeared in the Best American Poetry series, and 28 stories were selected or listed as notables in Best American Short Stories. The current poet laureate of the United States, Natasha Trethewey, published some of her early work in NER, and continues to publish with NER today. Donadio credits much of the magazine’s reputation for first-rate poetry to the efforts of C. Dale Young, NER’s longtime poetry editor.

  Donadio said, “More than anything else I’ve wanted to do my best

  <p>Stephen Donadio</p>
  Stephen Donadio will become editor at large at NER at the end of 2013.
  to insure that every issue of the New England Review could be picked up 20 or 30 years from now and still seem fresh and compelling, in keeping with Ezra Pound’s demanding dictum that ‘literature is news that stays news.’

  “Carolyn Kuebler has shared this vision,” added Donadio. “She is also a highly respected professional in the literary world. There could be no one better qualified to lead NER into the next phase of its distinguished history.”

  After taking academic leave in 2013, Donadio will resume teaching and advising students in his capacity as Fulton Professor of Humanities at Middlebury, also serving as director of the college’s Program in Literary Studies. He will maintain an association with the New England Review as editor at large.

• New England Review - https://www.nereview.com/about/26929-2/carolyn-kuebler/

  Carolyn Kuebler

  Carolyn Kuebler became editor of New England Review in 2014. She was previously managing editor at NER, an associate editor at Library Journal, and founding editor of Rain Taxi Review of Books. She began her work in publishing as an intern at Milkweed Editions in Minneapolis, served briefly as marketing director at Dalkey Archive Press, then worked as a bookseller and events publicist at the Hungry Mind in St. Paul.

  Carolyn’s novel, Liquid, Fragile, Perishable, is forthcoming from Melville House in 2024. Her essays have appeared in the Massachusetts Review (where “Wildflower Season” won the 2022 John Burroughs Award for Nature Essay), Colorado Review, the Common‘s “Dispatches” series, and The Little Magazine in Contemporary America (University of Chicago Press). Her fiction has been published in the Common, Copper Nickel, Sleepingfish, and the Literary Review, and she has published dozens of book reviews, as well as small-press profiles and author interviews, in publications such as Publishers Weekly, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi, and City Pages.

  At Middlebury College, she has taught a course in Literary Magazine Publishing and occasionally advises students on creative writing and publishing projects. She has an MFA from Bard College and a BA from Middlebury College.

• The Muse and the Marketplace - https://museandthemarketplace.com/presenters/carolyn-kuebler/

  Carolyn Kuebler is the editor of New England Review, where she works with authors at all stages of their careers and in all genres. Before coming to NER as managing editor in 2004, she was an associate editor at Library Journal and founding editor of Rain Taxi Review of Books. She began her work in publishing as an intern at Milkweed Editions in Minneapolis, served briefly as marketing director at Dalkey Archive Press, then worked as a bookseller at the Hungry Mind in St. Paul. Carolyn has published dozens of book reviews, small-press profiles, and author interviews in publications such as Publishers Weekly, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi, and City Pages. Her essay on literary magazines is included in The Little Magazine in Contemporary America (University of Chicago Press), and her fiction has been published in The Common, Copper Nickel, Sleepingfish, and The Literary Review. She is currently finishing up a novel and, as always, working on the next editor’s note for NER. She has an MFA from Bard College and a BA from Middlebury College.

• Bookish - https://christinesneed.substack.com/p/the-pathway-to-publication-an-interview

  The Pathway to Publication: An Interview with Carolyn Kuebler of New England Review
  On writing, editing, and the literary life

  CHRISTINE SNEED
  NOV 03, 2023
  Yearly and monthly subscriptions to Bookish are 15% off through Nov. 17. 📗
  Upcoming posts: a new agent list, interviews with Anthony Varallo, Colette Sartor, Joann Smith, and Gioia Diliberto, and a craft essay on writing a novel.
  A traditional pathway to publication for poets and prose writers begins with literary magazines, which in most cases are published one to four times a year. Some are housed at universities; others operate independently and are supported through donations, grants, and subscriptions. Quite a few agents and their assistants read literary magazines and query writers whose work they admire. Subsequently, some writers are offered representation, and in time, go on to publish their first books.

  The Indiana Review was linked to the MFA program I attended at Indiana University in Bloomington and was edited by MFA students, with a faculty member serving in an advisory capacity. I read poetry submissions a few times for IR, and the hours I spent opening envelopes and reading dozens of poems made a deep impression.

  I remember feeling overwhelmed by how much writing had been sent to this tiny, crowded office in the middle of our tree-filled campus, how many hopes we readers and editors—all of us graduate students and not professional editors—were custodians of until we made the decision to accept or reject. It seemed a miracle that anything was accepted at all—there was just so much.

  Necessarily, most of the work was rejected. The majority of literary journal issues range from a hundred to two hundred pages, and even before Submittable, some of the better known, more prestigious journals routinely received hundreds, if not thousands, of submissions a month.

  Earlier this year, I wrote about best practices for submitting to literary journals, including a sample cover letter - you can find that post here. Carolyn Kuebler, the editor of New England Review, a journal based at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, also shares her advice in the interview below for how to put your best pages forward when submitting your prose and poetry.

  Carolyn Kuebler
  Carolyn has helped launch dozens of writers, myself included. The first short story I published with NER, “This Parrot Is Hilarious,” was accepted for a 2002 issue. I’d published stories in a few other journals by then, but had been sending stories and poems to NER for about eight years before they accepted this story. No surprise, it was an exceedingly happy day when I received the acceptance letter.

  The next story I published in NER appeared in the summer 2007 issue. In late February 2008, Carolyn left a message on my answering machine (I still had dial-up internet at the time too), and I remember her words clearly, “I’m calling with some really, really good news. Series editor Heidi Pitlor [who writes Wordness here on Substack] and guest editor Salman Rushdie have selected your story “Quality of Life” for The Best American Short Stories 2008!”

  To say I was stunned is an understatement. I remember telling a family member later that day about this news, and he said, “Are you sure?” No, I wasn’t sure - it took a while for this unhoped-for news to sink in.

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  Only a few weeks before Carolyn called, I was wondering if I should give up on my writing. I’d been out of grad school for ten years by that time and was only publishing one or two short stories a year, three if I was lucky, and a few poems here and there. I knew this was all I could reasonably expect, even though I was hoping for more.

  I didn’t have one story after another accepted after this outlook- and life-changing news arrived, but it made me believe that my work had value and that other readers and writers I admired found it interesting and worthwhile.

  Over the last 21 years since my first acceptance, I’ve continued to send work to NER, and Carolyn has been an incisive and generous editor to work with from day one. As alluded to above, I know there are dozens of other writers who feel the same about her (and about Stephen Donadio too, her EiC predecessor at NER).

  Along with her editorial work, Carolyn is an accomplished prose writer and book critic, and her debut novel, Liquid, Fragile, Perishable is out next spring from Melville House. Preorders can be made at Bookshop.org.

  And now, here’s our interview (conducted over email).

  Christine S/Bookish: If I remember correctly, you were a cofounder of the indie/small press book review periodical Rain Taxi and worked there for several years before moving to New England Review, where you are now editor (in chief). How did you become interested in this region of the literary world?

  Carolyn Kuebler: When I was an English major in college, I had the impression literature was something nearly heaven-sent and godly made, and I had no idea how books came into being, either as a writer or publisher. Nor that there was a large gap between commercial and independent publishers, and that the books most widely read, reviewed, and lauded often got there by dint of the money and power of a few tastemakers in New York publishing.

  In Minneapolis I discovered through an internship at Milkweed Editions, and then working in bookstores and with other presses, that indie publishers played an important and creative role in new literary writing. I soon discovered there were a lot more interesting books out there beyond the NYT Bestseller list. And the more I read, the more I learned that the books that excited me most were usually those published with very little fanfare or financial backing.

  I wanted to do something about that – which is where Rain Taxi came in. It was a way to review and celebrate the most interesting books being published, and it was loads of fun to do this project with equally passionate friends. It wasn’t sustainable for me in the long run, though, so I went off and got an MFA and did a few other things before landing at the New England Review, where I started out as managing editor, a job I believe I was offered in large part because of all the skills I picked up doing the DIY project that was Rain Taxi, and later working for Publishers Weekly and Library Journal.

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  At NER I can continue working in the creative part of publishing, by helping select some of the most compelling, accomplished language-rich un-formulaic writing out there. It also has the ethic and energy, despite being housed at Middlebury College, of a kind of DIY project. The longer I do it, the more I see my role in publishing as a way to nurture and to value something vital that is so often unpaid and unseen. Working closely with writers to fine-tune their vision is deeply satisfying, and I think that close reading from an editor is vital to their understanding that their work is truly being valued, understood, and promoted to new readers.

  CS: You write essays (e.g. "Self-Storage" which appeared in the Colorado Review in the summer 2022 issue and your first novel, Liquid, Fragile, Perishable, is out next spring) as well as edit NER full-time. How do you safeguard your writing time? I know the demands of running an esteemed literary journal like NER are formidable.

  CK: Showing up to my desk every morning with a cup of coffee before the day begins—before work at NER, before my daughter’s school, before even getting dressed—has been a lifeline to my own writing. Sometimes I get a couple hours out of those mornings, sometimes 20 minutes, but it’s a habit that has made all the difference. If I get some of that time in the morning, whatever happens the rest of the day will be okay. Because NER is on a relentless publishing schedule—one 200-page issue, with at least 25 writers per issue, every three months—and because we have a small staff and endless submissions to consider, I do have to guard that time carefully. Which means I can’t do some of the other things I’d really like to do, like gardening and going on trips and to concerts and becoming a better bird-watcher.

  CS: The inevitable question: what do you see writers doing when they submit work to NER that drives you bonkers? And what should we do if they hope one day to receive an email from you saying, "We would love to publish your work"?

  CK: Most of what I see anymore has already been read by one or more of our editorial staff, so I don’t see a lot that drives me bonkers anymore, but from what I hear things don’t change a lot in that regard.

  The most common mistake is to send writing that isn’t ready. Sometimes a writer will be so excited to have completed a draft that they mark the occasion by submitting it to magazines, sometimes rather profligately. I’d recommend they sit on it for a few weeks or months, come back to see it with their own fresh eyes, before sending it out.

  It’s going to take us a few months to read it anyway, so take your time and send it only after it’s the best you can make it. It also helps to have some idea of what we publish before sending your work.

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  Also important: simultaneous submissions are fine, but please do be sure to withdraw immediately when something is accepted elsewhere. If another magazine makes an offer first, the piece should really go to them. We don’t engage in bidding wars, and I think that if another magazine acts faster and more decisively, they deserve to have first dibs, no matter if the writer might have preferred a different outcome. Send it to your favorite magazines first and wait to hear back before sending it to your next round. And please don’t send more than one piece at a time.

  Other than that, just keep working on your writing and don’t assume that if it’s not being taken by a magazine it’s no good. You really have to learn to be your own best judge, and maybe have a few honest friends in the wings.

  CS: Would you share a rough outline of how an issue of NER comes together from the initial reading of submissions to its transmission to the printer that produces the elegant hard copy editions?

  CK: Our submissions cycle, while it appears from the outside to run for a couple months in the spring and a couple more in the fall, is really in progress all year long. We only close so that we know we’ll be able to manage what has already come in, with as many volunteers as we can handle—currently about 35—but not more than that. If we get more than we can handle with all that help, we’re not doing anybody any favors by staying open longer. We try to balance being open to the highest number of submissions with our ability to read them. And it still sometimes takes forever for a writer to get a response. Even so, we read, comment, hold, pass along, discuss, decline, and accept work all year long.

  Once we’ve closed an issue we get to work on the line editing. Each piece is edited, copyedited, and proofread before it goes into layout. After “the list” is complete, I print everything out and put it on a big table and put it in order. At this point, the thematic strains and coincidences really make themselves apparent – for instance, the issue we’re finalizing now features an unusual number of ghosts and pregnancies, plus a couple of therapists and tarot card readings, and a number of investigations into ancestry, both proud and shameful. We’re still looking for the perfect cover art, which is obviously an important final decision, in terms of content.

  Our managing editor meticulously manages the layout here in the office, in InDesign, and then she sends a PDF page proof to each writer for final corrections. Once those all come back, it goes to the printer, comes back as a proof for us to look over, and then is printed, bound, and shipped. The time from sending it to the printer to having it in our hands is about three weeks. And then the promotion begins! All while the next issue is being selected, edited, etc. The submissions queue is never quite empty. It’s the train that never stops.

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  CS: Please share a few words about what we can look forward to in future issues of NER (i.e. if you're accepting submissions for an issue for new writers this next year - or another themed issue, please note that here).

  CK: Our next issue, coming out this December, is our biannual emerging writers (and translators) issue, meaning every piece in there is by someone who hasn’t yet published a book. While we publish emerging writers in every single issue, we wanted to be more deliberate about it, and to make that fact better known. This is our third such issue, and we’ll probably continue to do it every two years in December.

  Each summer issue includes an international feature. Last year it was Irish poets in tribute to Eavan Boland, guest edited by Shara Lessley. This summer it’ll be new translations from Korean writers, with guest editors Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello and E. J. Koh. We have a film supplement coming out in winter 2024 edited by J. M. Tyree, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Wong Kar-wei’s Chungking Express.

  But otherwise, we’re just reading submissions on any theme, topic, length, style, and voice. Please find yourself a copy and read it as soon as possible! Read it like a book, from front to back, including the pieces that don’t immediately look like your kind of thing. Our goal is that an attentive reader will be rewarded for spending time with every issue, even if that reward is a disruption in one’s usual way of thinking, reading, and understanding what language can do.

  Creator bio: Carolyn Kuebler became editor of New England Review in 2014. She was previously managing editor at NER, an associate editor at Library Journal, and founding editor of Rain Taxi Review of Books. She began her work in publishing as an intern at Milkweed Editions in Minneapolis, served briefly as marketing director at Dalkey Archive Press, then worked as a bookseller and events publicist at the Hungry Mind in St. Paul.
  Carolyn’s novel, Liquid, Fragile, Perishable, is forthcoming from Melville House in 2024. Her essays have appeared in the Massachusetts Review (where “Wildflower Season” won the 2022 John Burroughs Award for Nature Essay), Colorado Review, the Common‘s “Dispatches” series, and The Little Magazine in Contemporary America (University of Chicago Press). Her fiction has been published in the Common, Copper Nickel, Sleepingfish, and the Literary Review, and she has published dozens of book reviews, as well as small-press profiles and author interviews, in publications such as Publishers Weekly, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi, and City Pages.
  At Middlebury College, she has taught a course in Literary Magazine Publishing and occasionally advises students on creative writing and publishing projects. She has an MFA from Bard College and a BA from Middlebury College.

Kuebler, Carolyn LIQUID, FRAGILE, PERISHABLE Melville House (Fiction None) $19.99 5, 7 ISBN: 9781685891091

Varying perspectives show the inner workings--and secrets--of a rural Vermont town.

The humdrum order of small-town Glenville, Vermont, is disrupted when a family moves in from New York. Parents Sarah and Jim Calper seek a better life for their son, Willoughby, while Will just seeks an end to the summer so he can leave for college. But when he meets sheltered, home-schooled Honey Mitchell and falls in love, he unknowingly changes Glenville forever. Kuebler's debut novel spans a year in the town through the alternating perspectives of residents whose deepest thoughts betray a tense, insular place buried beneath a peaceful surface. As Honey defies her evangelical parents for Will, other characters go through parallel changes. Honey's friend Sophie, for instance, deals with jealousy and fracturing friendships, while Nell, an isolated woman living alone in the woods, navigates poverty and disability in the midst of the cruel Vermont seasons. Honey and Will's relationship, though shown sparingly, is the axis around which the story swings. Their devotion to one another brings about a surprising conclusion, one whose arrival Kuebler sows slowly and carefully. The narrative moves like the river that runs through the town: gentle at first, then harsh and unforgiving. At times dark, at other times beautiful, Kuebler's debut shines in its precision. It picks apart each character's thoughts in an unusual clipped stream-of-consciousness narrative. The characters' points of view fit together like an elaborate quilt, gradually coming together into a satisfying whole. Kuebler's skillful, minimalist prose carries this small-town story from tranquil beginning to perilous end. Among the residents' growth, discovery, and tenderly told emotional arcs, only one thing is certain: Glenville will never be the same.

An intricate, slow-burning patchwork of a debut novel.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Kuebler, Carolyn: LIQUID, FRAGILE, PERISHABLE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A786185569/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=14e9193c. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.