Wander Luster is a collection of twenty-five poems inspired by journeys of all kinds—from a flip through the dictionary to a trip into a souk. Offering meditations on travel and desire, the chapbook includes prose poems and found poems among the free verse lyrics.

Imagine a felucca
stranded
in the thin tan waves
of dictionary pages.

"These are original and lively poems—what a breath of fresh air."
—Leah Maines, author of Beyond the River

To read poems featured in Wander Luster, click here.

To buy, visit Amazon or the Contact page.

Arriving at an island resort, Scott and Kate make the acquaintance of an older couple, the Griffins, already tanning on the beach. When Scott agrees to do the Griffins a favor, he sets in motion a series of encounters and dilemmas—both between the two couples and within them. Scott believes it will be an adventure; Kate doesn't like the sound of it. There's something mysterious about the situation. And everyone's language hides secrets. Relying on the rhythms of poetry, Palms is a story about exploration and accommodation, about deciding which stories travel, which to tell.

Winner of the 2007 Clay Reynolds Novella Prize from Texas Review Press

"It's just damned compelling.... This has the feel of a quality Woody Allen film or play, largely because of its spontaneity and freshness.... An artful piece."
— Clay Reynolds, novelist and critic

To read the first chapter, click here.

To buy, visit Amazon, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes and Noble, Powell's Books or even your local independent bookstore. Visit the Contact page for publisher details.

Also available as a Kindle book and in Apple's iBookstore.

Amazon says:

A story collection that proves less is more. The stories in this collection run the gamut from playful to tragic, conservative to experimental, but they all have one thing in common: they are no more than 25 words long. Robert Swartwood was inspired by Ernest Hemingway's possibly apocryphal six-word story—"For Sale: baby shoes, never worn"—to foster the writing of these incredibly short-short stories. He termed them "hint fiction" because the few chosen words suggest a larger, more complex chain of events. Spare and evocative, these stories prove that a brilliantly honed narrative can be as startling and powerful as a story of traditional length. The 125 gemlike stories in this collection come from such best-selling and award-winning authors as Joyce Carol Oates, Ha Jin, Peter Straub, and James Frey, as well as emerging writers.

Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer is now available at Amazon and elsewhere.

“The perfect story collection for all of us with too little time on our hands is a brilliant reminder of the magic that happens when you string the right words together. A must-read for anyone who is or wants to be a writer.”

—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of House Rules