Jen Michalski

The Summer She Was Under Water

The Summer She Was Under Water recently was published in August 2016 (Queens Ferry Press).

The Tide King

The Tide King published in May 2013 (Black Lawrence Press). The basic plot involves Stanley Polensky and Calvin Johnson, two soldiers who serve in Germany during World War II. Calvin, near death after being shelled, is given a bewitched herb by Stanley but then left for dead. Each soldier returns from the war and years pass. Calvin, discovering that he cannot age and cannot die, searches for Stanley to get answers. Also include is the back story of the herb, including the introduction of Ela, a 9-year-old Polish peasant girl who ingested the herb in the late 18th century and still lives physically, as a young girl, in the 20th century. She and Calvin join forces to find a cure for the herb.

The Tide King won the 2012 Big Moose Prize from Black Lawrence Press.

Could You Be With Her Now

The novella collection Could You Be With Her Now, released by Dzanc Books in January 2013, showcases Michalski's range. The first novella, "I Can Make It to California Before It's Time for Dinner," examines the dangers of living in a world while having a compromised reality. In a first-person narrative, the reader follows Jimmy, a mentally challenged fourteen-year-old boy who accidentally kills a neighborhood girl. He winds up running away and hitching a ride with a trucker who is not as trustworthy a companion as Jimmy believes him to be.

In the second novella, "May–September," which won first place in Press 53’s Open Awards in 2010 for novellas, a young writer is hired by a much-older woman over the summer to help blog her memoirs for her grandchildren. An unlikely friendship, and more, follows, as Michalski examines one of the last cultural taboos of our age: May–December romances.

Reviews of the collection include the following:

"In tandem, [the novellas] inform one another, their threads entangling, ultimately affording a more complete reading of the collection as a whole." – Nik Korpin, Electric Literature

"The two very different styles in Could You Be With Her Now, not only make the case for the novellas as form, but also for Michalski as a wise writer and master stylist." – Baynard Woods, Baltimore City Paper

"Jen is an astonishingly sensitive writer." – Adam Robinson, HTML Giant

"Stewart O'Nan has written understandingly and movingly about the life of an older woman in Emily, Alone: A Novel. 'May–September' adds to the admittedly limited oeuvre with the inspiring story of a woman who can still come alive through love." – Celeste Sollod, Style Magazine

"At the center of it all is Michalski’s masterful hand, at once compassionate and unflinching, possessed of extraordinary, aesthetic restraint. What she has given us are two lean bodies of incredible depth and ambition."– Sara Lippmann, [Pank]

"This is an admirable and original book. Michalski is a skilled storywriter." – Roman Gladstone, Chamber Four

"Michalski is just a damned good writer, and her subject matter is, at the same time, the most common story there is: love. She handles it beautifully, revealing herself as one of the finest writers working today." – Cort Bledsoe, Ampersand Review

"Could You Be With Her Now, a book of two novellsa, is one of the most writerly books I've come across in a while. What I mean is, Michalski gave a lot of thought to how she wanted to write these stories and then executed them so beautifully that the result is a piece of art to be admired as it is absorbed." – Lindsey Silken, Hello Giggles

"In both stories, Michalski explores what it means to be vulnerable in modern society, what it means to be invisible, powerless, voiceless—either from mental or physical fraility—but struggling to matter in the world just the same. How carelessness and resentments on part of the family members can inadvertently thrust their vulnerable loved ones into situations that bring unexpected, unwanted, painful consequences." – Rosalia Scalia, The Little Patuxent Review

'While “Dinner” feels like a celebration of its form’s nervous charms, “May–September” expands on its “state of grace” strengths, lending Now a certain comprehensive sweep; taken as a whole, the book feels like a tour de force statement on how — and why — novellas continue to be written." – Joseph Martin, Baltimore Fishbowl

"Together, these works illustrate how so often, we fail to go any deeper than the surface of those around us. Both in Jimmy and Sandra's interactions with the world around them, there is a breakdown of communication, and a failing of those who are close." – Jennifer Ray Morell, Sundog Lit

"Kudos to Michalski for giving me ALL THE EMOTIONS. Whether you fall into these two stories willingly, or struggle to catalog and exercise all of the demons you are dealing with as you make your way through, one thing is certain. Michalski will make you feel. And feeling... well, feeling anything feels good." – Lori Hettler, The Next Best Book Blog

From Here

This story collection will be released by Aqueous Books in November 2013 and includes stories published in storySouth, Gargoyle, Baltimore Review, The MacGuffin, 42 opus,and others.

Close Encounters

This debut story collection was released in June 2007 by the now-defunct So New Press Necessary Fiction, its online magazine, is still ongoing, edited by American author Steve Himmer.