A Thousand Natural Shocks: Selected Stories

Richard Burgin is the five-time Pushcart Prize-winning author of 20 books, including the novels Rivers Last Longer (2010) and Ghost Quartet (1999), and nine story collections including most recently Don't Think (2017) and Shadow Traffic (2011). He is the founding editor of the internationally acclaimed literary journal Boulevard.


"Darkly captivating stories... Burgin deftly explores his characters' most sacredly held fears with a tenderness that makes the reader exalt in their small triumphs. Burgin shows admirable range in this collection, which is hugely varied in both style and form, and while there are clear standouts, there's not a single throwaway." --Publishers Weekly

"Richard Burgin's writing is the most lucid and daring of any writer writing today." --Stephen Dixon

"Richard Burgin's tales capture the strangeness of a world that is simultaneously frightening and reassuring, and in the contemporary American short story nothing quite resembles his singular voice." --The Boston Globe