Let Me Out Here

C. Michael Curtis Prize, 2018

selected by Lee K. Abbott

Hub City Press

About the prize:

The C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize is endowed by an anonymous donor to recognize an outstanding collection of short stories written by an author living in the South. The prize honors C. Michael Curtis, acclaimed fiction editor at Atlantic magazine from 1963 to 2005. Curtis published stories by dozens of established and emerging writers during his tenure, including Tobias Wolff, Jill McCorkle, Joyce Carol Oates, and Lauren Groff. In 2006, Curtis moved to Spartanburg, SC to teach at Wofford College. He died on January 11, 2023 at the age of 88.

Praise for Let Me Out Here:

“With a style as deft as it is nuanced, her touch as light as it is sharp, Ms. Pease brings to the page the intelligence to know what matters.” -- Lee K. Abbott

“Let Me Out Here is an extraordinary collection of hidden moments and midnight roads, tales of characters held captive to their own stories, giving this collection a driving intimacy, a deft and crafted boldness. I’ll follow Pease wherever she’s going.”  -- Amelia Gray

“These are gorgeous and haunting stories. In Let Me Out Here, Emily Pease as given us a collection that is both urgent and timeless. She’s a sublime writer, and her fiction is shot through with grace and beauty and the gravity of hard-won emotion.”  -- Bret Anthony Johnston

“Pease at once manages to achieve the sharp-elbowed intimacy of Grace Paley and the formal restraint of Tobias Wolff’s best work. These stories have all the sweetness and bite of spiked sun tea and should be indulged likewise, both recklessly and responsibly.”  -- Cheston Knapp

“Arresting, fierce, and unforgettable.”  -- Claire Messud