Satchel of Dreams

"Satchel of Dreams" will bring you back to the 1950s and 60s through a kaleidoscope of American tales centered around a delightfully out-of-kilter Staten Island family. In the days Before the Bridge – the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge, connecting it to Brooklyn – Staten Island was a remote greenbelt in the middle of New York harbor that, happily, time forgot. "The Children's Ward" ushers you into a Catholic hospital on the island and the short-lived friendships that defined mortality for a seven-year-old boy. "Lake Hopatcong," introduces you to a hospitalized hero of WWII and his brunette nurse, with whom he fell in love and married while on crutches. "The Route" brings you to a candy distributor in the South Bronx and the unplanned pathways in life, interrupted by the circumstances of the day. These and other stories, through the lens of an adult child, will transport you to a simpler time before technology, when summers seemed to last forever, and riding a bicycle around your neighborhood was all one needed to be happy. "Satchel of Dreams" tells stories of minor triumphs, thunderous failures, and growing up with hope, disillusion, laughter, and tears, all in the name of humanity.

"Satchel of Dreams," a collection of American short stories is told through the eyes of an adult child, painting a kaleidoscope of fascinating events and intriguing versions of normalcy during simpler times in the 1950s and 60s... a time that any dyed-in-the-wool Staten Islander would refer to, sadly, as "Before the Bridge." The Verrazano Narrows Bridge, completed in 1965, connected Staten Island to Brooklyn and forever changed the isolated, quaint world of the author's childhood. Staten Island, in those days, could easily have been a midwestern town with horse stables, a farmers' market with canvas tents, lit up at night like a carnival; drive-in movies, an airstrip, a nickel ferry ride, and its own foot-long hot dog amusement restaurant, Al Deppe's. Crawfish darted between the fallen leaves and shale in the brooks at Clove Lakes; new roads led to a place called Lands' End, and everywhere was an innocence, a resilient quietness that still echoes from that era before the Island became what many consider simply another borough. When he was a little kid, the author, Matty Selman, had no idea that his family was different from those down the block or around the corner. As he got older and more aware of things, he realized that he was a member of a delightfully out-of-kilter ensemble of human beings as out of place in his neighborhood as a square peg in a round hole. "Satchel of Dreams" will further reflect on the colorful lives of these people, shine a light on their triumphs and disappointments, and echo their sense of humor, humanity, and infinite generosity. "The Children's Ward" ushers you into a Catholic hospital on Staten Island and the short-lived friendships that defined mortality for a seven-year-old boy. "Lake Hopatcong," introduces you to a hospitalized hero of WWII and his brunette nurse, with whom he fell in love and married while on crutches. "The Route" brings you to a candy distributor in the South Bronx and the unplanned pathways in life, interrupted by the circumstances of the day. These and other stories will transport you to those days before technology when summers seemed to last forever, and riding a bicycle around your neighborhood was all one needed to be happy. "Satchel of Dreams," tells stories of minor triumphs, thunderous failures, and growing up with hope, disillusion, laughter, and tears, all in the name of humanity.

MATTY SELMAN is an award-winning author, playwright, lyricist, and composer whose works have been performed internationally. He is the author of Uncle Philip's Coat, selected as a Herber Berghof Memorial Play, and won Best Production at the 2015 United Solo Festival. He is the recipient of the Cafe' Royal International Cultural Foundation Literature Grant and is the founder of Time Out of Kilter, a monthly literary newsletter featuring his short stories. He lives in New York.