Ugly to Start With Released
Winner of The Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers, John Michael Cummings has published a collection of short stories about adolescence. Released in October 2011 by West Virginia University Press, Ugly to Start With revolves around Jason Stevens growing up in Harpers Ferry, WV (Cummings's hometown) during the 1970s. Each of the stories in Ugly to Start With was previously published in online and print literary journals including The Iowa Review, The Bitter Oleander, and The Cortland Review. One of the stories in the collection, The Scratchboard Project (originally from The Iowa Review), was nominated for The Pushcart Prize and received an honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories 2007.
The first short story in Ugly to Start With can be read at the West Virginia University Press website.
