Featured Author

Russ Desaulnier

Russ Desaulnier and his wife, Bonnie, have lived in Eugene, Oregon, for the last twenty years. Prior to that, he taught English at a Japanese university.

Titles by Russ Desaulnier

  • The Player

    Released: April 2023

    Genre: Short Fiction

    “The stories of The Player are filled with memorable characters, individuals swimming against the undertow of life, slouching toward an uncertain tomorrow in search of the great unknowable something hiding out in the mysterious land where love is found, lost, and all too often misplaced. I am glad to have met them.”
    —Ross West, whose stories have appeared recently in Wisconsin Review, The Satirist, Entropy, Litro, and Pangyrus

    “Russ Desaulnier’s fourth collection of short stories may impossibly be his best. The Player is fourteen well-crafted tales driven by a wide breadth of culture and a deep well of sentiment for his characters.”
    —Dan Armstrong, author of the novels Quicksand and Blake College

    “The characters of the stories in The Player are undaunted by the challenges of following dreams—the promise of a career in Japan, glory as a torero in Mexican bullrings, an offer to be a carefree gentleman and live in an Irish castle, etc. The characters take us from California to Mexico and Spain, to Japan and Greece, all with the go-for-it optimism of youth.”
    —Rafael Zepeda, Cal State Long Beach professor of English, author of the novel Desperados, and Horse Medicine & Other Stories

    “The Player is a well-written collection of stories, just the book to read while sipping coffee after a chilly morning walk. You can’t go wrong.”
    —Arthur Wild, author of the short story collections What Old Men Think About and A Confusion of Stories

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  • The Border and Other Crossings

    Released: February 2023

    Genre: Short Stories

    “The Border and Other Crossings is a collection of short stories that shows life lived to the full, with passion and sensitivity, and illuminates the simple events of the not quite, ordinary life that each of us leads. The narrators of these stories affirm that life is best understood backwards, that recreated moments reveal the borders of the heart and define the passages we’ve made.”  -Bill Plain, Editor

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  • Such Stuff

    Released: August 2022

    Genre: Short Stories

    This book begins with the back story of the Malones, two young brothers who leave Western Canada during the Depression in the 30s to make their fortune in England but end up in California after the war. Thereafter, the stories take place in California and encounter the lives of assorted narrators looking for love, meaning and purpose. In the last five pieces of the collection, older narrators are reflecting and seeking to terms for their lot. Overall, the collection can be seen as a fictional journey in the zeitgeist of California in the latter half of the 20th century, the golden land of dreams.

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  • Making Waves

    Released: February 2022

    Genre: Short Stories

    The stories in Making Waves address universal experiences from the ’60s and ’70s, when the liberation of that era was a challenge that many didn’t handle with grace or direction. While shambling through those uncertain times, these narrators maintain an unshakable optimism.

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