WINNER of Prize Americana for Prose, Jen Knox’s The Glass City is a shrewd yet playful collection that explores the dangers of extremes with a subtle, skillful elegance. In these sixteen stories, weather becomes a mirror for the internal struggles of Knox’s indelible cast of characters. An aging acrobat looks for connectivity online as her city floods, two sisters are tasked to spread their mother's ashes on flowers that no longer exist, a man's scars become tattoos as he attempts to outrun truth, a reluctant host shares an island's secrets, and families survive natural disasters that shake out lies and bury inhibitions.

"Jen Knox is a fearless writer. She can describe a Toledo community decimated by apocalyptic drought, a bakery in Nice during a terrorist attack, a surreal museum of living statues, and make every one of these things feel as real and intimate as your favorite worn-in flannel shirt. Acutely alert to the smallest moments that reveal character, her stories can give you a whole life in a few short paragraphs, laid bare in all its sorrow, glory and restless longing. She can work dialogue, twist a plot, make you laugh out loud, and then break your heart. The Glass City speaks to the America of now as urgently as Sinclair Lewis or Theodore Dreiser did in their day, but with a touch of magic that only makes the reality beneath that much more haunting."

–Sheila Black, author of Iron, Ardent