"When America's underbelly shows we see that it's fat, wiggly, and soft, and kind of dirty, and when it will finally get stretched out well and good by the wretched of the world, it will be clear that what looks like dirt is actually a collection of amazing stories by Willie Smith who chronicled the fat, the wiggle, the complacency, and the terror of it like only few writers did, the great ones."Andrei Codrescu, author of Whatever Gets you Through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments"In this collection of stories, Willie Smith wheels the Human Condition into the examining room and proceeds to poke, prod, humor and biopsy any suspicious growths with the surgical precision of Franz Kafka and Robert Walser. Should be included in any survival kit."Donald Guravich, author of World at Large"The sentences are pure poetry, it is here I should be caustic, bitter; it is here I should nip at the ankles; jealousy reduces one to such acts. I order you to buy this book, sit down, place Miles or Monk on the record player, and read the book over and over again."Paul Kavanagh, author of IcebergWillie Smith is deeply ashamed of being human. His work celebrates this horror. He was born in a hospital outside Greenbelt, Maryland, a few short years after Adolf Hitler shot himself in the head while simultaneously crunching down on a cyanide capsule. He grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, just a pack howitzer shot from the White House. In the late sixties he worked as a logger in the same woods D. B. Cooper later jumped into. He received a B.A. in English or creative writing or something from Reed College in 1972. In 1995 he returned to academia to teach writing for exactly one week at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado; he was never asked back.He spends a lot of time, when he isn't making a living as a flunky in a Welfare office, sitting around reading and writing and waiting to be asked to recite or teach or go on a secret mission to rescue the princess from a gangbang he has secretly himself initiated. He is the proud father of a vasectomy and to the best of his knowledge has never replicated. He is lazy, rather homely and sometimes smells a little funny. He is addicted to classical music, self-pity, stargazing, whole grain, lean meat and fresh produce. He has never owned an automotive vehicle and does not possess a driver's license, valid or otherwise. His religion is walking; the world is his church. You are cordially invited to witness Willie embarrass himself at www.youtube.com/wsmith49Photo by: Susan J. Sanders