They Hover Over Us

Winner of the 2011 Serena McDonald Kennedy Fiction Award, They Hover Over Us is a powerful collection of short stories about people from Pennsylvania's Rust Belt. Gritty, witty and ponderous, this collection explores complex yet relatable themes such as longing, loss and love. These are contemporary stories about people who never had a fair shot in life, or who remain stuck in mismatched relationships, or are struggling to overcome hardscrabble family histories. See why one reviewer called these stories "flawless diamonds mined from Pennsylvania's very own coal mines, steel towns and Navy yards."

Winner of the 2011 Serena McDonald Kennedy Fiction Award, They Hover Over Us is a powerful collection of short stories about people from Pennsylvania's Rust Belt. Gritty, witty and ponderous, this collection explores complex yet relatable themes such as longing, loss and love. These are stories about real people you won't forget--contemporary stories about people who never had a fair shot in life, or who remain stuck in mismatched relationships, or are struggling to overcome hardscrabble family histories. Starkey Flythe, judge for the Serena McDonald Kennedy Award, wrote that these winning stories "have a stunning reality which is yet clothed and softened by an unforgettable human spirit." Other reviewers were just as complimentary: Author Kaylie Jones called these stories "flawless diamonds mined from Pennsylvania's very own coal mines, steel towns and Navy yards."

Richard Fellinger is a writing teacher at Elizabethtown College and a former journalist. His short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, won the 2008 Flash Fiction Contest at Red Cedar Review, and appeared in many other journals such as Epiphany, Potomac Review, Willow Review, Westview, Forge and PANK. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University, where he won the 2009 Beverly Hiscox Scholarship for Excellence in Writing. A native of Altoona, Pa., he now lives with his wife and son in Camp Hill, Pa., where he’s at work on his first novel.