Ordinary Genius

Thomas Fox Averill is writer-in-residence and a professor of English at Washburn University of Topeka. He is the author of the novels Secrets of the Tsil Cafe and The Slow Air of Ewan MacPherson.

"Nebraska inaugurates its new Flyover Fiction series, edited by Ron Hansen, with this slim, elegiac collection. . . . In all these stories, Averill illuminates the magical in the mundane: just because the rest of the world flies right over Kansas doesn't mean they're not missing out."—Publishers Weekly "Plainspoken, sharply observed collection from O. Henry Award-winner Averill (The Slow Air of Ewan Macpherson), first in a new series focused on the nation's heartland. . . . [Averill] creates a landscape at once realistic and fantastic, inhabited by characters whose eccentricities make them fully human."—Kirkus Reviews "Averill, like the best midwestern writers, transcends social commentary to reach into deeper strata. Like Willa Cather and William Stafford, he understands that human habitation of the Great Plains is a small portion of the land's mythos. His characters speak and act like human beings, but ultimately they unmask and reveal themselves as cosmic elements. This remarkable range in Ordinary Genius is the gift of Averill's writings."—Bloomsbury Review "Explores the transcendent and magical qualities that transform even the most mundane life in Midwestern Kansas, capturing the unique and extraordinary world of a boy hunting for a runaway horse, a couple ostracized in their small town, a grieving basketball star, and the other colorful characters."—Forecast "In Thomas Fox Averill's fictional world, average people have the darndest adventures. . . . Averil's book, balancing magical moments with lush, descriptive writing that captures the grit and beauty of Kansas landscapes, knocks the notion of the Great Dull Middle flat on its can."—Kansas Alumni Magazine