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Published by She Writes Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
For fans of Cormac McCarthy, a novel-in-stories that chronicles, with compelling accuracy and violence and through shape-shifting prose and rococo, one girl’s passage from childhood to motherhood in a small midwestern town.
A clear-eyed and necessary account of how violence insinuates itself into characters living liminal lives in the purgatorial world of Ontario, Illinois, Learning to Hit My Mother is a collection of connected stories that all possess a unity of place—and characters so compellingly human that they promise, with an almost unflappable certainty, to possess the reader.
Pit, a girl at the onset, is savaged by her mother, who goes at her with her hands, heart, and even a baseball bat because her husband—Pit’s father—has had her. This demented triangulation forms Pit. Throughout her life she is drawn to misfits—like her friend Bean, who ultimately steps in front of a train. From these inauspicious beginnings ensues a whole delectable slew of stories; stories full of meaty, fragmented souls—Lou, Edgar, Twink, Leesa, and Pit’s son, Sam; stories whose quiet intensity will capture fans of Sherwood Anderson and Clarice Lispector.
Championed by language that is jarringly precise, Learning to Hit My Mother soars in its visceral portrait of the monstrous as located in what might be called the sublimity of the ordinary. Haunting, unputdownable, and gripping, each story galvanizes with thought- provoking prose that hits each and every cell.
A clear-eyed and necessary account of how violence insinuates itself into characters living liminal lives in the purgatorial world of Ontario, Illinois, Learning to Hit My Mother is a collection of connected stories that all possess a unity of place—and characters so compellingly human that they promise, with an almost unflappable certainty, to possess the reader.
Pit, a girl at the onset, is savaged by her mother, who goes at her with her hands, heart, and even a baseball bat because her husband—Pit’s father—has had her. This demented triangulation forms Pit. Throughout her life she is drawn to misfits—like her friend Bean, who ultimately steps in front of a train. From these inauspicious beginnings ensues a whole delectable slew of stories; stories full of meaty, fragmented souls—Lou, Edgar, Twink, Leesa, and Pit’s son, Sam; stories whose quiet intensity will capture fans of Sherwood Anderson and Clarice Lispector.
Championed by language that is jarringly precise, Learning to Hit My Mother soars in its visceral portrait of the monstrous as located in what might be called the sublimity of the ordinary. Haunting, unputdownable, and gripping, each story galvanizes with thought- provoking prose that hits each and every cell.
Product Details
- Publisher: She Writes Press (October 20, 2026)
- Length: 256 pages
- ISBN13: 9798896361770
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Raves and Reviews
Praise for Elizabeth Kirchner’s Because the Sky Is a Thousand Soft Hurts:
“A gut-punch to the soul. There is nothing easy about the magic Kirschner casts; rather, its complexity serves to illuminate the indomitability of the human spirit in those deep, dark places where it would seem no spirit could survive. This is a devastatingly beautiful book.”—Laura Hurwitz, author of Disappear Home
“Because the Sky Is a Thousand Soft Hurts is a master stroke. Brimming with a hallucinatory spirit, these are less stories and more poetic and metaphysical voyages. A literary achievement, this collection rewards re-reading over and over again.”—Jonathan Koven, author of Palm Lines and editor of Toho Journal
“This collection is a powerhouse of language; its sentences sing with heat and precision. Kirschner's voice is poetic, lyrical, and singular. She exposes the vulnerable and damaged through the lens of hope and redemption. A stunning collection that will stay with me for a long time.”—Erika Nichols-Frazer, editor of An Anthology of Mental Health Recovery Stories
“Reading Elizabeth Kirschner’s Because the Sky Is a Thousand Soft Hurts is like being enveloped in layers of jeweled robes—each layer intricate with emotional depth and magnificent prose. Kirschner’s characters brave their lives—family violence; childhood trauma—in scenes so immediate and chilling, the reader is dared to both look deeply, then look away—in awe.”—Sari Rosenblatt, author of Father Guards the Sheep
“We need more voices like Elizabeth Kirschner’s, whose words connote the reality of trauma, illness, neurodivergence, and beauty through the juxtaposition of her own associative metaphors, similes, and images. A published poet and memoirist, she also proves adept at fiction. These are not conventional stories but quantum fictions.”—Kevin Richard Kaiser, editor-in-chief of Punt Volat and author of An Ethics Beyond: Posthumanist Animal Encounters and Variable Kindness in the Fiction of George Saunders
“Elizabeth Kirschner’s collection dances on a keen edge—not only between fiction and poetry, but hallucination and holiness. This is a collection full of dark corners and glorious twists. Reader, take it slowly. Savor it.”—Adam Prince, author of The Ugly Wishes of Beautiful Men
“Kirschner’s prose is a crucible in which characters, causation, and language itself are broken down and recast. But it is ultimately our own hearts that emerge, pulverized and purified, from her fires.”—Jonathan Freeman-Coppadge, Fiction Editor, Oyster River Pages
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