Advance Praise for Tiger Burning Bright


Arlene Sanders is one of the freshest new voices in American fiction today.
In Tiger Burning Bright she paints her characters with brush strokes both bold
and demure, but always with the precise control of the true artist, aiming always
for the frangible heart of the human condition.  At the core of this collection is
an aching knowledge of the isolation of those who still carry, with fierce courage
and despite their loneliness, the fire of hope within them.  And there are characters
who will make you afraid to turn off the lights.  I guarantee that once you finish
this remarkable book you will not be able to get the lyrics to “Ten Cents a Dance”
out of your head.

                                          -- Lorian Hemingway
                                      Critically acclaimed author of Walk on Water,
                                      Walking Into the River, and A World Turned Over



Tiger Burning Bright is a fiercely honest and profoundly resonant collection of
stories.  It marks an impressive debut by a perceptive, penetrating writer who
possesses a keen literary arsenal: a sharp eye for detail, a highly-calibrated ear
for the cadences of modern living, and a rich understanding of human emotions.  
The stories themselves are often deeply disturbing, sometimes violent -- but each
contains an underlying generosity of spirit.

Ms. Sanders' unique voice builds upon the work of such modern masters as
A.M. Homes and Joyce Carol Oates, yet adds a distinctive and captivating
Southern flavor to the mix.  Her lonely, grappling anti-heroes and anti-heroines are
both easily recognized and highly sympathetic.  This is a fine volume of sharp,
sinewy prose that deserves to be read and savored widely.  Fans of the
contemporary short story will be grateful for the time they spend in the haunting,
hallowed world that Ms. Sanders has deftly created.

                               -- Jacob M. Appel
                                    Award-winning author and playwright
                                    Winner, Faulkner-William Wisdom Award
                                    for the Short Story
                                    Winner, Kurt Vonnegut Prize, North American Review



I don't know what mainstream literature is, but after reading [the title story] I know
what it isn't. . . .  An alcoholic celebrates the destructive courtship of her disease
despite running  over a three-year-old child in "Tiger Burning Bright" by Arlene
Sanders.  

                                                           -- Robert Duffer
                                                             From review of Iconoclast #94
                                                             NewPages.com, February 2007



These stories have everything—sex, violence, addiction.  But at their heart, they
are about relationships: an old man and his new housekeeper who barely speaks
English; an educated woman living alone and the redneck who comes by her place
“to fix the gutters and to ask [her] out;” a woman and her bottle of Scotch; a sexual
predator and his victims; a thirty-year-old woman who decides she needs a
husband and the convict she chooses to “fix up” like the antique furniture she
restores.

In spare, powerful prose, Ms. Sanders shines a light both unflinching and tenderly
forgiving on these characters and the world they struggle to live in.

                     -- Mark Farrington, author of the novel Manion in Darkness
                             Johns Hopkins M.A. in Writing Program



Populated with fragile and remarkable characters, these passionate stories will
delight readers who remain open to all of life's possibilities, both wonderful and
tragic.

                                       -- Marcia Preston
                                         Author of The Butterfly House and many others


        
Tart and funny in spots, tender and thoughtful throughout, Tiger Burning Bright is a
marvelous collection that often speaks of matters close to the heart.

                                      -- Tim Wendel, author of the novels
                                          Castro's Curveball, and Red Rain



In this hard-hitting short-story collection, Ms. Sanders brilliantly illustrates the
passions that drive us, the addictions that deter us, and the (too-often) misguided
ways we struggle to live free.

                                --  Eduardo Santiago
                                           Author, Tomorrow They Will Kiss



Ms. Sanders has created a parallel universe where all desires -- from the noble to
the criminal -- are inevitably acted out.

These briskly paced stories skillfully delineate the human character given full rein
to its passions and impulses.

These simply told stories deftly dance the line between romantic and disturbing.  
Ms. Sanders' characters are victims and victimizers; people who usually know what
they want and go after it.  In the subsequent glory or wreckage lies the tale.

                                -- Phil Wagner, Iconoclast

Four Pushcart Prize
   Nominations