Frank Soos

Frank Soos, writer of longish short stories, meditative essays, and flash nonfiction, is the author of Early Yet, Unified Field Theory (winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award), Bamboo Fly Rod Suite, and Unpleasantries: Considerations of Difficult Questions. He served as Alaska’s Writer Laureate from 2014-2016.

One of his many collaborations with visual artist Margo Klass became the book Double Moon. Beaver Creek, an artist book construction, combines images and texts inspired by a joint BLM Artist-in-Residency celebrating the Federal Wild and Scenic River Act.

Frank was a much-beloved teacher to all kinds of writers—school kids, adults in his OLLI classes, undergrads just beginning, community writers. Famous for his commitment to their writing, Frank offered his graduate students ample time and attention. They learned from him a fierce work ethic, a devotion to their art, and a generosity to other writers.

He asked of his students what he asked of himself: writing that will “advance the problem,” writing that will ask better questions, writing that will interrogate our inarticulate actions.


All Books

The Getting Place

Frank Soos

Publication Date: January 25, 2022

$16.95 Tradepaper

ISBN: 9781597099219

Description:

The stories in The Getting Place spring from the places Frank Soos loved best: the coal hills of southwest Virginia, the coves of coastal Maine, and the rivers and tundra around Fairbanks, Alaska. They ask, “Who can know the why of his own life, the why of what he does?” We join his characters when their lives spin beyond their control, when they face unexpected upheavals that change their lives utterly. By turns quirky, heartbreaking, profound, and witty, these brilliant stories open the hidden rooms inside us.
—Peggy Shumaker

Double Moon

Margo Klass, Frank Soos

Publication Date: February 15, 2009

$19.95 Tradepaper

ISBN: 978-1597091411

Description:

For thirty years, Margo Klass has created hand-crafted book forms. In the last decade she’s turned her skills to making elegant and profound sculptures. She constructs box forms, icons, and altarpieces, and covers them in cloth or fine paper. Some have windows or skylights so shadow and light can collaborate. Then she gleans from the wide world found objects that she places in gorgeous juxtaposition. From this process come altarpieces and icons, tiny rooms and vast expanses that draw us into their worlds.


Frank Soos spends time in each of these created spaces, and responds in miniature essays, pieces of brief prose no longer than a paragraph. The interplay between words and objects is startling, playful, thought-provoking, and emotionally complex. Reflection and refraction—we take in both words and images, and then our imaginations continue the transformations.


The book itself is beautifully produced, with color plates on every page, French flaps, and two fold-out pages.


Wanda Chin’s book design and Dixon Jones’s electronic wizardry allow the images to come alive on the page. Kesler Woodward’s afterward offers an artist’s insights. Chris Arend, Blaine Pennington, Jim Barker, and Barry McWayne contribute fine art photography.

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