The Truth About Death (34 page)

And to the following for supplying just the right words when I needed them: Susan Erickson, “Renaissance angels balancing effortlessly on stepping-stone clouds” (p. 136)—adapted from “Angels Italiano” (
The Art of Departure
, Egress Studio Press, Bellingham, WA 2003); Michel McFee, “How hard to take the trail as it comes” (p. 105)—from “Plain Air” (
Plain Air
, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL 1983); and Peter Burian, translation of Leopardi’s “Il passero solitario” (p. 53).

PUBLICATION INFORMATION:

Published stories included in
The Truth About Death and Other Stories
:

“
THE REMOVAL
,”
Printers Row Fiction
(April, 2016).

“A Christmas Letter,”
Ploughshares
(Spring 2014), 112–133. Selected for online publication by
Electric Literature
’s “Recommended Reading,”
http://recommendedreading.tumblr.com/
.

“
FOR
SALE
,”
Black Warrior Review
23 (Spring/Summer 1997), 1–13.

“I Speak a Little French,”
Crazyhorse
43 (Winter 1992), 82–91.

“Pockets of Silence,”
The Chicago Tribune
, Magazine Section, 29 January 1989, 18–20. Later incorporated into
The Sixteen Pleasures
(1994).

“Snapshots of Aphrodite,”
StoryQuarterly
38 (2002), 478–488.

“The Mountain of Lights,”
The California Quarterly
21 (1982), 93–112. Reprinted in
Best Short Stories from the California Quarterly
,
1971–1985
.

“The Second Coming,”
Mississippi Valley Review
23 (Fall 1992), 63–79.

A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR

Robert Hellenga
was educated at the University of Michigan, the Queen’s University of Belfast, and Princeton University. He is a professor emeritus at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and the author of the novels
The Confessions of Frances Godwin
,
Snakewoman of Little Egypt
,
The Sixteen Pleasures
,
The Fall of a Sparrow
,
Blues Lessons
,
Philosophy Made Simple
, and
The Italian Lover
. He lives in Galesburg, Illinois.

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First published 2016

© Robert Hellenga 2016

“Tell all the truth but tell it slant” by Emily Dickinson reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from THE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON: VARIORUM EDITION, edited by Ralph W. Franklin, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1951, 1955 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © renewed 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1914, 1918, 1919, 1924, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1935, 1937, 1942 by Martha Dickinson Bianchi. Copyright © 1952, 1957, 1958, 1963, 1965 by Mary L. Hampson.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.

ISBN:   HB:         978-1-63286-291-4

              ePub:      978-1-63286-292-1

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
.

Hellenga, Robert, 1941–

[Short stories. Selections]

The truth about death : and other stories / by Robert Hellenga.

pages ; cm

ISBN 978-1-63286-291-4 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-63286-292-1 (ePub)

I. Title.

PS3558.E4753A6 2016

813’.54—dc23

2015031690

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