From the Hilltop

Toni Jensen is an assistant professor of English at the University of Central Florida. Her short stories have appeared in numerous literary magazines and have been reprinted in volumes such as New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, 2007 and Best Stories from the Southwest.

• 1. Chiromancer2. Butter3. Learning How to Drown4. Still5. At the Powwow Hotel 6. From the Hilltop7. Conjunctions8. Killing Elvis9. Sight and Other Hazards 10. Flight11. Looking for Boll Weevil12. Song or Something Like It

"Welcome to the West as seen by the folks who shop at K-Mart and work picking up tips and cleaning motels. This is a portrait of America told with truth and love, tales at once funny as they are tragic. Toni Jensen writes from her heart."—Sandra Cisneros, author of Caramelo "At first you'll wish you had written these stories yourself, then you'll suspect you feel that way because you maybe lived them, they're that real, but by the end you'll be thrilled just to have entered the world of Toni Jensen's fiction. This is an important debut, one that stays with you. Expect more from her."—Stephen Graham Jones, author of Bleed into Me "These stories are as much about tradition as they are about the now; Jensen's understated and powerful prose easily bridges that divide."—Publishers Weekly "The choice of words, whether for descriptions, dialogue, or inner reflection, is impeccable. Jensen is a powerful, gifted writer who has crafted characters for whom this reader felt deeply."—Lisa Rand, Feminist Review "From the Hilltop is a fine debut, an example of the way that lightning can strike for a talented writer like Jensen, illuminating a portal to that place from which all good stories come. If readers are fortunate, that lightning will strike again."—Kurt Caswell, High Country News "Recommended for all short story collections, Jensen's stories will bring pleasure and inspire thought for many readers."—Andy J. Deering, Multi Cultural Review