The River Underground: An Anthology of Nevada Fiction

Short stories and exciting excerpts from Nevada writers offer a sampler of literary talent from the Silver State. Few readers outside Nevada are aware of the richness and diversity of the state''s literary community, or of the number of nationally respected writers who make the state their home and often the subject matter of their work. Editor Shaun T. Griffin, in this compelling anthology of contemporary fiction from Nevada, makes a very convincing case that the state''s wealth runs to far more than glitz and gold. Here we find a delightful and long-forgotten story by the doyen of Nevada writers, Robert Laxalt; a moving story by Adrian C. Louis, a Native American from Lovelock who has won national acclaim for his powerful fiction and poetry about reservation life; and excerpts from work by best-selling writers Teresa Jordan, Steven Nightingale, Douglas Unger, and Richard Wiley. Settings range from rural Nevada to rural post-revolutionary China, from the excitement of Las Vegas to a Basque immigrant household in Carson City, from the hills of Appalachia to the Pacific during World War II. Characters include a pair of Mormon teenagers trying to escape the moral rigors of their faith,

Shaun Griffin is the co-founder and director of Community Chest, a non-profit agency serving children and families in northwestern Nevada since 1991, and the former founding director of the state’s homeless education office. In 2004, he received the Mike O’Callaghan Humanitarian Award, named after the former Nevada Governor. In 1995 he received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. He regularly contributes poetry, essays, and translations to literary journals in the West. He and his family live in Virginia City, at the western-most edge of the Great Basin.