The four short stories in this collection all take place in Galvin, a rural Midwestern town plagued by its reluctance to acknowledge the problems that are destroying it: methamphetamines, unemployment, and a dwindling police force to name a few. The characters in this collection realize that stasis eventually becomes paralysis, and that escape is both necessary and inevitable, whether it is through uprooting, obsession, or substance abuse. Each character experiences alienation and struggles with the way their past decisions have shaped the trajectory of their lives. There is a sense of danger throughout the collection for the next generation of the town's inhabitants, as small children are usually in trouble or under the guidance of adults who are still struggling to untie the knots of their own lies. These characters are all running down ghosts—of the loved ones they've lost or abandoned, of the innocence they've surrendered, of the lives they lived before regret. / Department of English

This is a collection of short fiction in two parts. The first is a history, a Wikipedia-esque examination of the land swath that happens to be Sturgis, Michigan. The second looks at the lives of the uncomfortable who happen to live in this swath, those who don't fit nicely into Sunday best button ups or easily defined sexual orientations or a food pyramid that lacks Mountain Dew. Like a cleaning woman who loves her lizards but isn't sure she knows how to love another human. Like a son who knows how to beat a video game but not how to handle the complicated love and hate he feels for his mom after her death. Like a young man who knows he wants a pierced nipple but little else. Sturgis, Michigan, Notable explores the nuances that get glossed when discussing flyover states.

"Off Main Street" is a collection of short stories concerned, primarily, with the expression of womanhood in the American Midwest.