Cities & Women

An amazing collection of short stories from Key West writer and musician Hal Howland, you will encounter several popular characters from Howland’s previous titles and introduces a world of unforgettable newcomers. The first of two title stories reminisces about a lifetime spent living in and visiting great cities around the globe. And the second title story remembers the women with whom a man came of age, if not into maturity. Also you will find “Evidence,” where a middle-aged actor remembers two former girlfriends, opposites in every way, who presumably still own photographs of him naked. “The Grand Tour” follows a small-time nineteen seventies crooner and his disparate bandmates on a hilarious American road trip. “Jocelyn Davies” tells of a lovelorn singer whose sexual awakening dissolves a stalled relationship. “Piano Trio” describes a noisy sex romp taking place upstairs in an old woman’s guesthouse. And “The Mansfield Effect” recalls a comic one-night stand with an over-endowed drama student. More than 30 stories in all.

Hal Howland is the author of After Jerusalem: A Story and Two Novellas, Cities & Women: Short Fiction, The Human Drummer: Thoughts on the Life Percussive, and Landini Cadence and Other Stories, a finalist in the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and a recipient of the 2012 Eric Hoffer Award for excellence in independent publishing. Cities & Women earned an honorable mention in the 2014 Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition. Howland has released three award-winning, critically acclaimed jazz recordings, The Howland Ensemble, Reiko, and 10 Years in 5 Days, and has received a jazz fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Virginia, Europe, and the Middle East, Howland lives in Key West, Florida.