Praise for Bastard Blue

“Yes, Bastard Blue is a first book but there’s more than promise on display within its pages. This collection introduces us to a fully realized talent. Murray Dunlap’s voice is confident, his characters richly drawn, his sense of place as vivid as you will find in fiction. Sentence for sentence his prose is crisp and direct, edged somehow with both menace and hope. He has a knack for creeping up to sentiment in his stories without crossing the line, leaving only genuine, well-earned emotion on the page. This book is so fine somebody should offer a money back guarantee.”  

  — Michael Knight, author of The Typist

“Forged with a poet's attention to cadence and rhythm, a storyteller's devotion to character, and tension that just keeps ratcheting up, Bastard Blue is finally a love story, between a young man and the place that made him, the southern culture that proves to be both a blessing and a curse.  Murray Dunlap is a brave writer, and an honest one; the lives he portrays here are as heart-stoppingly authentic as his prose is dazzlingly beautiful.  He serves up everything I want in a story: compassion, humor, substance and style.” 

  — Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness

“If possible, read Murray Dunlap’s Bastard Blue in a Louis XV style chair, near a subtle fire, or in an Adirondack chair, between peach and dogwood trees. Reading his stories is about as close to having a storyteller there—present, in the room—as I know. This collection is full of heart, mischief, and sly winks. What a grand triumph.” 

  — George Singleton, author of The Half-Mammals of Dixie

About the Author

Murray Dunlap's work has appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, Post Road, Night Train, Silent Voices, The Bark, and many others. His stories have been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, as well as Best New American Voices, and his first book, Alabama, was a finalist for the Maurice Prize in Fiction. The extraordinary individuals Pam Houston, Laura Dave, Michael Knight, and Fred Ashe taught him the art of writing.