Schwartz settles across the southwest to shed light on souls who, despite all odds, are still looking for meaning.

Praise

*Starred Review* “Schwartz appreciates that a compelling plotline can contribute intensity to the brief life of a short story. All of these 11 stories arrest the reader from their opening paragraphs; their fully engaging plots include a western farmer allowing a hippie-dippie couple the temporary use of a cabin on his property but finding peace and love quickly turning to violence; a young person’s crush on a cousin turns very provocative when the cousin, years later, shows up for a reunion no longer her original gender; a high-school teacher holds a gun to his head in front of his class with the full intention of using it; and a married man faces, under stressful circumstances, his own competitiveness with both his former girlfriend and his wife. But Schwartz is careful to use his strong, even page-turning plots to service the short story form’s primary responsibility: to capture a character’s most salient traits. His easy, unpretentious writing style not only adds to the stories’ accessibility and resonance but also supplies the solid amalgam between plot and character, resulting in a collection to be held up as evidence that the short story not only endures but also flourishes.” —Brad Hooper

“How vividly Steven Schwartz describes his characters and how cunningly he wields the knife edge of suspense. I loved entering each of the worlds he creates--a grandfather fighting for his grandchildren, a man misled by a hippie couple, a woman who falls asleep at the airport, a teacher who holds his class hostage--and I hated to leave.” –Margot Livesey

“I love Steven Schwartz's characters for the way that, even as they work with such patience and fortitude in the face of radically diminished expectations, at holding up their end, as they understand it--or holding up more than their end--they feel so piercingly the full extent of their failures. Little Raw Souls is one of the most openhearted and emotionally intelligent story collections I've ever read.” –Jim Shepard

“Steven Schwartz is a capacious writer; bucking the trend, a lot happens in these stories. He takes the time and has the skill and graciousness to give each of his stories a full world in which men and women wrestle with their conflicting codes, reaching for the right thing among all of the easy and delectable choices.” –Ron Carlson

“Little Raw Souls is a beautiful book--I loved watching these characters bumble and brave their way through compromise, integrity, and freedom from illusion. What inventive and truthful stories these are.” –Joan Silber

"The stories in LITTLE RAW SOULS represent a triumphant second act in the life of American writer Steven Schwartz." –TheRumpus.net

“Set in a variety of landscapes across the southwest, from northern Colorado to Tucson, Santa Fe to Sedona, each of these stories is a gem. They give life to souls who might be cynical but still hope for meaning, souls scraped raw with living. They are anything but little.” —Arizona Public Radio

“A strong pick for any modern short fiction collection.” —Midwest Book Review

“Expertly rendered stories” —ForeWord

"Schwartz is a master craftsman. His ear for dialogue is terrific. His characters are wonderfully complicated. His ability to create dramatic tension is masterful. Each story is a blazing forge.” —Billings Gazette