In his debut short-fiction collection, The Way Things Always Happen Here, Kevin C. Stewart takes his readers to the scene of a heinous murder, to the home of an alcoholic single mother, to the 1960s election campaign of JFK through West Virginia, and off the side of the New River Gorge Bridge. In these eight stories set in fictional Oak County in southern West Virginia, and one novella set in the Arkansas Ozarks, Stewart gives us characters who all love and hate where they’re from.

Among other awards, Kevin C. Stewart won the Texas Review Novella Prize for a short story entitled Margot, which is featured in this book. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arkansas, along with degrees in English, architecture, and civil engineering. He currently serves as a professor of English and creative writing at Potomac State College.