The Book Cove

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from?  I've been an Okie my entire life. Born in Bartlesville, home of Phillips 66; then spent a few years in Grove, a small lake town in northeast Oklahoma; and finally moved to Oklahoma City in 1998. Due to this, most of my work has some sort of Oklahoma connection. My characters are either from Oklahoma or the story itself is set there. Place is very important to my writing, not only how it affects the senses but also its history, how it bears down on my characters and informs their actions. I write fiction, mainly, both short stories and novels. I'd describe most of my work as dark, written in both the realist and surrealist traditions. Common themes include poverty, both financially and morally; guilt; shame; and redemption. Favorite authors right now include Jose Saramago, James Hannaham, Dave Eggers, Laura Van Den Berg, and Margaret Atwood, among many, many others. How long have you been writing? ...

From acclaimed author, Noah Milligan, comes a short story collection, Five Hundred Poor. The title is derived from Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, “Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions.” These are ten stories of those five hundred poor: the jaded, the disillusioned, and the disenfranchised. Purchase at Amazon  or  Barnes and Noble About the author Noah Milligan's debut novel, An Elegant Theory, was shortlisted for the Horatio Nelson Fiction Prize and a finalist for Foreword Review's 2016 Book of the Year. He is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of Central Oklahoma, and his short fiction has appeared in Windmill: The Hofstra University of Literatu...