Bill Gaythwaite presents A Place in the World with Mubanga Kalimamukwento

The eleven stories in A Place in the World are character-driven portrayals depicting various lives transformed by random events or twists of fate. A young woman living on the coast of Maine confronts her painful past when her little brother comes to visit after being released from rehab; A hopeless gay hustler, in for the long con, instead finds himself falling in love while vacationing in Denmark; a failed New York City actor afraid of commitment goes on a comic rant and embraces an epiphany while cat-sitting for a friend. In separate, first-person narratives, a struggling husband and wife take turns describing the impact of a scandalous crisis on their marriage; a settled suburban dad arrives at a beach house for the weekend, only to realize he robbed one of the other houseguests thirty-four years earlier. In this poignant, engaging collection, Gaythwaite offers compassion and surprising optimism while celebrating astonishing resilience in the face of life’s persistent challenges.

Bill Gaythwaite is the 45th Drue Heinz Literature Prize winner. His short fiction has appeared in Subtropics, Chicago Quarterly Review, Willow Springs, South Carolina Review, Puerto del Sol, and many other publications. Gaythwaite's debut novel, Underburn, was published by Delphinium Books in 2023. Bill is currently Assistant Director for Special Populations at Columbia Law School. He lives in New Jersey with his partner.

Mubanga Kalimamukwento is the author of Obligations to the Wounded: Stories (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2024). Kalimamukwento’s other books include The Shipikisha Club: A Novel (forthcoming from Dzanc Books, 2026), Another Mother Does Not Come When Yours Dies: Poems (Wayfarer Books, 2025), unmarked graves (Tusculum University Press, 2022), and The Mourning Bird (Jacana, 2019). Her creative work has also appeared in adda, Aster(ix), Isele Magazine, Contemporary Verse 2, Kweli, Overland, on Netflix, and elsewhere. Kalimamukwento founded Ubwali Literary Magazine, co-founded the Idembeka Creative Writing Workshop, and serves as a mentor at the Minnesota Pr*son Writing Workshop.

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