ISBN-13:9781944467081
Publisher: Brighthorse Books
Publication date:04/01/2018
Paperback, 254 pp. $16.95
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advance praise
"The first book by an Alabama author to win the Brighthorse Books Fiction Prize, Alina Stefanescu's stories bring an immigrant's sharp eye to the American way of life. In prose that reminds us of the best of Grace Paley, Every Mask I Tried On is by turns smart, funny, and profound. Including prize-winning stories previously published in multiple literary journals, this collection weaves through fabulism, magical realism, and poignant realistic fiction to leave the reader in the post-national space of home and life."
Mark Yakich, Gregory F. Curtin, S.J. Distinguished Professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans and author of Poetry: A Survivor's Guide, says:
"This book is so much more than the bouquet of its masks, and it marks the birth of a one-of-kind prose stylist. An Everywoman all her own. After reading one page or even one paragraph, I dare you not to conclude that you've been going through the motions of reading, if not day-to-day living, for years."
Therese Svoboda, author of six books of fiction and recipient of a Guggenheim Award, warns:
"Don't come looking for labyrinthine plot, long hairy description, or character charts in Alina Stefanescu's snappy Every Mask I Tried On. You know these people, you know what happens. You're in it for the "snartling," where you laugh through the nose and admire your own snark. "If you've ever tried to comfort a man during a rich menstrual season with half your mouth still numb from molar cavity fillings, you know where this is going." From her "eco-frottage" (rubbing your forehead against a tree) to worshipping a badminton birdie, Stefanescu makes sentences that blow the top off story."
Timothy Schaffert, author of The Swan Gondola, writes:
"Delicious and coolly wicked, as lush as it is precise, Every Mask I Tried On offers sharply focused portraits of domesticity that nonetheless verge on the surreal. I love Stefanescu's vision and voice, her wit and honesty. The characters' serenity often hinges on something vaguely sinister, and their daily peacemaking and ritual - whether it's baking a cake, collecting stamps, or inching through the carpool line - hints at a darker impulse, reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's best studies of contemporary life."
Prize-winning fiction writer and author of Wait Till You See Me Dance Deb Olin Unferth celebrates the book's "smart, beautiful energy":
"These stories of true love and family-making show an author with an exuberant soul, a terrific sense of humor, a philosophical mind, serious eyes, and a heart that knows but is not defeated by sorrow. Addictive, hilarious, vigorous tales."
media
To download a Press Pack in PDF.
“Alina Stefanescu’s debut collection of stories is a triumph of highest order, at times both “monstrous” and “terrifying” in its honesty. Every Mask I Tried On is a collection each of us must try on for ourselves in order to see more clearly the scaffoldings of our own invented artifices.”
Review by Ralph Pennel (Rain Taxi Review, November 2019)
“Every Mask I Tried On is hard to put down because each story carries its own weight. Its compelling language intrigues the reader to continue to the next chronicle, not knowing what they may find. Reading her stories engage a multitude of emotions, leaving the reader wondering how someone could be so brave, so cruel, so composed.”
"A Mask For Every Occasion: A Review of Every Mask I Tried On by Alina Stefanescu" by China Myers (Duende, July 25, 2018)
“So much of rootedness lies in language. I was taught to be ashamed of speaking any language that wasn’t American in public. Sometimes people think it’s quaint—they want to hear how you say “Hello” in Romanian—but mostly the response is one of offense and threat. “This is America—we speak American here.” My parents spoke Romanian at home throughout my childhood. When they divorced in college and remarried Americans, I lost the Romanian house. I lost the space in which all those beautiful vowels happened. I lost the country of my youth.
The reclamation of my roots—writing Romanian, writing as myself, who feels and filters and experiences so much as Romanian—is part of a decision I made in working towards a sustainable self, a livable personhood that doesn’t deny or hide what I am in order to please or fit in. Writing helps me deal with the way in which our roots lay claim to the fruit. Nationalism never appealed to me–not in its Romanian version which celebrates a historically-constructed pure Romanian human, and not in its American version which worships a prosperity gospel of consumerism and Anglo-Saxon patriarchs. I don’t believe in chosen peoples. The notion of somehow being set apart as group–an ideology of privilege–destroys any group it touches. Anything we have at the expense of someone else is a curse. Yet many of us prefer to see these things as blessings or signs of God’s favor or evolutionary fulfillments or facts of nature. As if anyone deserves the privilege they are born into. As if any mammal deserves being born under a dictatorship.
"On masks, being an outsider, and dread: An interview with Alina Stefanescu" (Former Cactus, June 2018)
“I think one of the big mistakes we make in life is that we think that we need to present happy endings or we believe that love completes us. Nothing completes us. We’re always – I think any human that’s honest with themselves – is always searching, always curious. But it’s still beautiful. It’s still wonderful. It’s still, for me, the best thing.”
"You Have to Laugh", Alina Stefanescu an interview with Katie Saffell, Brighthorse Books, May 1, 2018.
"Author wins award to publish 1st short story collection," Alyx Chandler, Iron City Ink, 18 May 2018
readings, signings, & random book happenings
about the author
Alina Stefanescu was born in Romania and lives in Alabama. Her poems and prose are recent or forthcoming in DIAGRAM, New South, Mantis, VOLT, Cloudbank, Prairie Schooner, NELLE, and others. She serves as Poetry Editor of Pidgeonholes and President of the Alabama State Poetry Society. Her first poetry chapbook, 'Objects in Vases' (Anchor & Plume Press, 2016) won the ASPS Poetry Book of the Year Award. Her first poetry collection, 'Stories to Read Aloud to Your Fetus' (Finishing Line Press, 2017) included Pushcart-nominated poems. Her debut fiction collection, 'Every Mask I Tried On', won the Brighthorse Books Prize and was published in May 2018. More online at www.alinastefanescuwriter.com or @aliner.
“It’s amazingly noteworthy that at the end of ‘Every Mask I Tried On: Short Stories,’ Alina Stefanescu acknowledges twenty-four literary journals that first published the various short stories in her collection, and she then goes on to thank Brighthorse Books for publishing this collection as their prize winner. There isn’t much that can be added to attest to the quality of writing in this book.
Alina’s sculpting of words and sentences is breathtaking at times; honest, vulnerable, witty, scrappy, and grief-ridden. I would also add challenging, as this true literary artist challenges tradition of all sorts, lack of tradition, sex, lack of sex, emotional intimacy, lack of intimacy, politics, lack of ideology, your thoughts, my thoughts, every person’s thoughts, in addition to her own. For those who love literary art, this is a definite five-star read.”
“A smart, compelling collection. Alina Stefanescu is a prose writer who is not afraid to show her many sides: poet, lover, mother, immigrant, fighter, scholar. Read this for a new look at the domestic sphere in an America that needs to change. Read this to experience the originality of every sentence.”
contact & readings
To schedule readings, book signings, or interviews, please contact the author by email at rainscented@gmail.com or by using this handy-dandy web-based interface.
For upcoming readings, signings, and events, see the Events page.
To request a review copy:
Brighthorse Books
13202 N River Drive
Omaha, NE 68112
402.455.1500
To download a Press Pack in PDF.