Praise for Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts
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![The front cover of Rick Bass's prize-winning collection]()
“Beneath all the dazzle and whir and gash-edgedness of these unique and uniquely American stories lies the most revolutionary heart: an affinity for kindness, and repair.”
Rick Bass, author of the Story Prize-winning collection For A Little While
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![The cover of Morgan's novel, Fire Exit]()
“Gardner has crafted an enduring and indelible masterpiece, a journey into the soul of our shared community of humanity. Simply put, DELINQUENTS AND OTHER ESCAPE ATTEMPTS is a triumph of literary brilliance, and it is one I will never forget.”
Morgan Talty, author of Fire Exit and Night of the Living Rez
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![Cover of Emily's debut novel, History of Wolves]()
“A tonal echo of Sherwood Anderson’s Midwest, along with Denis Johnson’s recognition that addiction and storytelling provide different but related escape hatches. An excruciating, gorgeous debut.”
Emly Fridlund, author of History of Wolves and Catapult: Stories
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![Cover of Maxim's story collection, Come West and See]()
“Amid a landscape of pill mills and junkyards, [Nick's] characters attempt to transcend their pasts, and their struggles illuminate Westinghouse, Ohio like flashes across the night sky. DELINQUENTS is an essential collection about the other side of 21st century life.”
Maxim Loskutoff, author of Come West and See, Ruthie Fear, and Old King
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![Cover of Brian's novel, Opioid, Indiana]()
"A dazzling debut. Golden with gorgeous language and grimy with the stench of the real. I shit you not, set this down with TRAINSPOTTING and BASKETBALL DIARIES and JESUS' SON as among the most beautiful elegies to addiction. It is shatteringly strong. It searches for, and finds, that jolt. Highly, highly recommend."
Brian Allen Carr, author of Opioid, Indiana and Bad Foundations
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![Cover of Rebecca's story collection, The Bed Moved]()
“Nick Gardner writes sly, heartbreaking stories about friendship, drugs, loneliness, and food trucks. DELINQUENTS is as self-aware and world-wise (or at least Ohio-wise) as an addict in recovery.”
Rebecca Schiff, author of The Bed Moved: Stories
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![Front cover of Kevin's book, The Red-Headed Pilgrim]()
“In fiery prose reminiscent of Denis Johnson, yet fiercely his own, Nick Rees Gardner writes of tragic misfits on the verge of salvation, almost but never quite sober, reaching toward the light.”
Kevin Maloney, author of The Red-Headed Pilgrim and others
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![Foreword Review's book logo]()
"The stories are suffused with a palpable sense of place.... And the prose is alliterative and earthy, making use of streetwise analogies that ground it in realism."
Joseph S. Pete, Foreword
When you're trapped in a Rust Belt town, time passes or it doesn't. The people of Westinghouse, Ohio know this better than most. In Delinquents, their personal worlds expand and collapse in on themselves as they battle addictions, build scrap-metal rocket ships, and tether themselves to plans that will either get them out of dodge or blow up in their faces.
A former Deadhead seeks sobriety in his hometown, though his decades-old childhood trauma has been exhumed and now awaits him. A sometimes-recovering addict asks his younger sister to put him up as he repairs cars in their yard and she scrabbles to keep her own sanity. A woman intending to follow her boyfriend out of town wonders why a newcomer in Westinghouse has captured her latent interest.
Nick Rees Gardner's linked stories portray people as they are: alternately hilarious, desperate, resilient, broken. For the characters contained in Delinquents, the crux is determining which they'll be when the music stops.
Delinquents in the news
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"The Eternal Grind: Nick Rees Gardner’s Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts," reviewed by Bryn Grey
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"Hard but hopeful tales of middle America, addiction, and the human condition." Full review here
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Full review from Joseph S. Pete and Foreword
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"Mansfield native’s short stories collection explores the human side of addiction," an article by Katie Ellington Serrao
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"15 Small Press Books You Should Be Reading This Fall." (Wendy J. Fox)
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Andrew Bertaina interviews Nick Rees Gardner. Topics include: buying a store, morning vs evening writing, running, emo poetry, going to college for drugs, leaving college for rehab, the story collection DELINQUENTS AND OTHER ESCAPE ATTEMPTS, rewriting, slowing down, reviewing books, influence, rhythm, subverting the rehab narrative, and more.
“Mara’s phone lit up again, but she didn’t even look this time. It vibrated in the cupholder. She turned to Dunk and smiled. She said, Welcome to the Mid-fucking-west. As if he hadn’t already been there, done that.”
About the author: Nick Rees Gardner
In addition to being a book critic, teacher, and writer, Nick is also a recovered addict. He has won awards in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from The Ohio State University in Mansfield and received grants from PEN America and The Elizabeth George Foundation. Nick earned his MFA from Bowling Green, and he lives in Ohio and Washington, DC. His website is https://nickreesgardner.com/