“…an American talent…”—Stephen King Pollack writes about times of tragedy and transition insightfully, aware of their everyday quality and of their gravity. In the Mouth is a window onto the amazing tenderness and irrationality of human life. One story, “The Bris,” has been selected for The Best American Short-Stories 2008 (Edited by Stephen King and Heidi Pitlor). “Eileen Pollock writes with great acuity, humor, and intelligent resign-ation about the various ways family love is called upon and revealed. This book is terrific company.”—Lorrie Moore “These are funny, rueful, wise stories, steeped in absurdity, pain, possibility —the work of a writer who has lived.”—Gish Jen

EILEEN POLLACK is the author of a collection of short fiction, The Rabbi in the Attic and Other Stories (1991), a novel, Paradise, New York (1998), and a book-length work of creative nonfiction called Woman Walking Ahead: In Search of Catherine Weldon and Sitting Bull (2003). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Michener Foundation, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, and the Massachusetts Arts Council. She is Chair of the Creative Writing Department at the University of Michigan.