Christian Winn’s stories are funny and smart and do not disappoint. Winn writes with pure, unrestrained joy at the baffling strangeness of the world. Beneath his lively and spirited prose, one finds a writer of great caring and heart. Winn explores the quirky lives of his people with compassion and intelligence, pouring sadness and hope on the page in equal measure. These are stories to be shouted from the rooftops.
—Mitch Wieland, author of God’s Dogs.
Naked Me is a tremendous, beautifully-made book about the functions and dysfunctions of families. Winn writes glittering stories about trapped, beaten, and restless young people, reluctant adults living under financial pressure and nursing wounds and wearing out their welcomes. The unforgettable stories "Rough Cut" and "Where He's Living Now" alone are worth the price of admission.
---Anthony Doerr, author of All The Light We Cannot See
“Christian Winn's remarkable NAKED ME accomplishes what any great fiction must, which is to make the reader see the world anew. These stories are brimming with heart and strangeness and grace, and I will be pushing this collection into the hands of readers for years to come.”
–-Laura van den Berg, author of The Isle of Youth
"A stunning collection from a great a new voice in Western literature."
---Willy Vlautin. author of The Free
In his debut collection, Christian Winn throws his readers unabashedly into a world of characters on the brink. Sometimes overtly, sometimes obliquely, we see what it means to live in a flawed world and, like anything profound, come away from the experience provoked, asking new questions. Naked Me, though despondent in places, is steeped in hope with characters willing to believe they might find peace, or at least a semblance of understanding within the earnest clutter of love, addiction, friendship, and dreams.
Voyeurs at a gambling party spy on the exhibitionist across the alley. A young boy tries to conceal his love for his best friend. Murdered dentists mysteriously begin to appear floating in the shipping canal of a city. Naked Me is that collection that pulls wisdom from the mundane, making us cringe and laugh in the same sentence. From the first line, Naked Me quickly reveals we are in the capable hands of a master.
Christian Winn was born in Eugene, Oregon, and grew up in Palo Alto, California and the Seattle area. He now lives in Boise, Idaho where he writes and teaches in the Creative Writing Department at Boise State University. He is the founder of the Writers Write fiction workshop series, which has been in operation since the summer of 2003. He is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University, and the Boise State University MFA program.
COPIES OF NAKED ME available for events, reviews, bookstores, and simply to read -- www.dockstreetpress.com.