The debut of a prodigious new talent, Danielle Evans' BEFORE YOU SUFFOCATE YOUR OWN FOOL SELF (Riverhead Books; September 23, 2010; $25.95; ISBN: 978-1-59448-769-9) is a collection of stories about young women and men of color, who are in one way or another struggling to transcend their pasts, and forced to make difficult decisions about what to keep, what to give up, and what they can never really leave behind. In "Virgins", two high school girls are forced to come to terms with their sexuality, and the heady mix of vulnerability and power that comes with it. In "Snakes", a young mixed-race girl spends the summer with her white grandmother, only to become the casualty of her family's deep-rooted tensions. In "Someone Ought to Tell Her There’s Nowhere to Go", a veteran recently returned from Iraq tries to reconnect with his old life by passing himself off as the father of his ex-girlfriend's daughter.

About the Author: Danielle Evans is a graduate of Columbia University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her stories have appeared in The Paris Review, A Public Space, The Best American Short Stories 2008, and other literary publications. Her story "Someone Ought to Tell Her There’s Nowhere to Go" was recently selected to appear in the forthcoming The Best American Short Stories 2010. She lives in Washington, D.C., where she teaches Literature at American University.