From The Watermark, a work-in-progress….“I recognised the irony that our relationship was now conducted by mail, but this long distance conversation was the only way I knew he was still alive.”
Stamp design by Graham Baker-Smith, Royal Mail Group (2015)
“…for the news-seekers, the greater pleasures in [Pushcart Prize XXXV] will be in the arrivals of writers such as Susan McCallum Smith, who blends offbeat family history with, of all things, episodes in philately.”
Kirkus Reviews
“It is thanks to my evening reading alone that I am more or less sane.”
“A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”
“A tough and funny talent of the first order… there are nods to John Cheever, Jorge Luis Borges, and even Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, but each with a darker palate and a sharper edge to them. The trouble is these comparisons don’t do McCallum Smith justice…behind the dark atmosphere of a few of her plots, wild laughter lurks, waiting to burst out….”
James Srodes, The Washington Times.
Slipping the Moorings
According to critic Frank Wilson of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the stories in Slipping the Moorings (Entasis Press, 2009) provide a moving glimpse into "the heartbreak at the heart of things."
“Aesthetic luminosity, narrative acumen, and dazzling descriptive powers unmatched except by the very best writers of this age or any other…McCallum Smith soars across the transatlantic pond of contemporary literature like a frigate bird, an old master with fresh wings, and Slipping the Moorings overwhelms with grace, elegance, gravity, humour, intelligence, and dare I say perfection.” Bob Shacochis, National Book Award winner.
"The stories in this collection vibrate with a kind of perfection that is beyond rare in literature today." Aimee Liu, author of Glorious Boy and Cloud Mountain.
“She has an astonishing range, a devilishly clever wit, and an extraordinary ability to illuminate the varieties of human predicaments.” Lynne Sharon Schwartz, finalist for the National Book Award and the Pen Faulkner Award.
