Fiction. These debut stories, set in northern New England, portray the revelatory moments of small-timers, clergymen, hotheads, day laborers, motorcycle racers, loggers, horse farmers, and young veterans of the Gulf War. In WILD PUNCH, Creston Lea achieves the rare congruence of language and landscape. Creston Lea's writing is realistic and understated. His style can be compared to writers like Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff. He is as much a master of local grit as he is of local color. Lea is an author who clearly loves his characters. He understands their contradictions and their stark daily realities, and he writes about them with an authority based on authenticity, generosity, grace, and sharply observed humanity.

Creston Lea was born in New Hampshire in 1971. His stories have appeared in DoubleTake, Open City, and W.W. Norton's 25 and Under: Fiction. He lives in Vermont with his wife and young daughter. There, he builds electric guitars under the name Creston Electric Instruments. Wild Punch is his first collection of stories.