Finally, the long-awaited literary debut from the finalist in the Associated Writing Programs Award Series in Short Fiction. Centaur of the North marks the introduction of a gifted storyteller, a lyric and transcendent voice. In nine resonant stories, Wendell Mayo presents us with characters who long to remove the shadows occluding elusive, almost magical mothers and to explore prescribed, yet not fully understood, destinies. His stories reverberate with a soul-aching need to fit the puzzle pieces together. Family histories, family mysteries emerging from legends—Wendell Mayo reveals the power of family storytelling, both real and imagined.
Finalist, 1997 Violet Crown Award; Winner
1996 Premio Aztlán
“Mayo has a distinct talent for catching in terse, precise tales the way in which loss shapes our lives and imagination. An impressive debut.”—Kirkus Reviews
“A powerful first collection.”—The New York Times Book Review
“This collection of stories exemplifies craft, prose that is measured, honed, polished to a flawless surface that compels the reader from end to end.”—Gordon Weaver, author of The Way We Know in Dreams
WENDELL MAYO is the author of Centaur to the North (Arte Público Press, 1996), which the New York Times Book Review calls “a powerful first collection.” In 1975, Mayo completed his BS in Chemical Engineering at Ohio State University and worked as an engineer. In 1980, he began to pursue his life-long ambition to write and finished his BA in Journalism at the University of Toledo. He published his first two short stories in 1984. In 1988, he completed his doctoral studies. Mayo’s works have been published in numerous magazines, including New Letters, Prairie Schooner, The Missouri Review, Exquisite Corpse, The Chattahoochee Review and The Yale Review. His other published works include In Lithuanian Wood (White Pine Press, 1998) and B. Horror: And Other Stories (Livingston Press, 1999). In 1996, Mayo was awarded the Premio Aztlán, a national literary honor that was created by author Rudolfo Anaya (Bless Me Ultima) for literary excellence in works by Chicano writers that explore aspects of Chicano culture and experience. Mayo is the former Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He joined the creative writing faculty of Bowling Green State University in the fall of 1996.
Learn more at personal.bgsu.edu/~wmayo.
