Blue in Chicago

The work of a woman who has invested her life in her art, and who will, I think, be remembered as one of the significant writers of her generation. - Saul Bellow

Blue in Chicago collects together the sharp, bittersweet stories of Bette Howland and restores to our bookshelves an extraordinarily gifted writer, who was recognised as a major talent before all but disappearing from public view for decades, until nearly the end of her life.

Bette Howland was an outsider: an intellectual from a working-class neighbourhood in Chicago; a divorcée and single mother, to the disapproval of her family; an artist chipped away at by poverty and perfection. Each of these sides of her life plays a shaping role in her work. Mining her most precarious struggles for her art in each of these stories, she chronicles the fears and hopes of her generation.

Blue in Chicago, and other stories introduces UK readers to a wry, brilliant observer and a writer of great empathy and sly, joyous humour. Published in the US under the title Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage.

If there's a Howland bandwagon (and there should be), hold me a seat, or I'll stand. No problem, I'll stand. - Paris Review