The award-winning debut Sometimes Creek now available from Cornerstone Press

“I love these stories! Perfect portraits of perfectly imperfect people.”

—Amber Sparks, author of And I Do Not Forgive You

“These are stories of real life in all its strange wonder and quiet magic."

—Kimberly King Parsons, National Book Award Finalist, author of Black Light

"Hardscrabble and tender, these seventeen story gems gleam in Midwestern dust.”
—Amy Cipolla Barnes, author of Mother Figures, Ambrotypes, and Child Craft

amazon button for ordering sometimes creek, by Steve Fox
barnes and noble button for ordering sometimes creek

Steve Fox is a writer. His work has appeared in or has been recognized by:

CutBank

LitMag

Whitefish Review

Narrative Magazine

The Masters Review

Writer’s Digest

BULL

The Iowa Review

Orca, a Literary Journal

New Ohio Review

The Midwest Review

Midwestern Gothic

The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters

Chicago Writers Association

Wisconsin Writers Association

Michigan Quarterly Review

Press

Eyes on Imagination — Interview with Nikki Kallio, author of Finding the Bones

The toughest and kindest and weirdest people you will ever meet.

Madison Magazine Author Q & A with Maggie Ginsberg, author of Still True

Through hockey rinks and haunted rivers, Wisconsin author's debut story collection shines

Fox Wins State Short Story Award, Hudson Star-Observer

Wisconsin State Journal Interview: Guilty Humor Finds its Way Into Short Stories

CutBank Literary Journal — Interview with Marcia Williams

Kirkus Reviews — “An astute, confident writer spins grim but entrancing tales.*”

*Recommended Read — GET IT

Wisconsin Writers Association — A stunning short story collection - Five Stars

Sometimes Creek Processes Grief, Channels the Absurd, Hudson Star-Observer

Madison Magazine — “Find Your Next Great Read 2023”

CutBank Literary Journal - Book Review by Marcia Williams

“This collection ends all too soon.”

Prolific Pulse Podcast — Interview with Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

St. Paul Pioneer-Press, “Three Books That Are Out of the Ordinary,” by Mary Ann Grossmann

“Everything seems slightly off-center.”

Wisconsin People & Ideas, A Review of Sometimes Creek, by Anthony Bukowski

“Anything can happen in Fox’s universe.”

Great New Discoveries, by Larry F. Sommers

“Two thumbs up, but only because that’s all the thumbs I’ve got.”

Windy City Reviews, by Christine Cacciatore

“I thought about this collection of stories for weeks after I finished it.”

  Podcast: New Books Network, with Megan Wildhood

Podcast: WORT-FM, Madison Bookbeat

Hudson Star-Observer, review by Kaitlyn Dolittle

“…a collection of stories that hits the nail on the prose head.” 

Awards

American Book Fest Best Book Award — Sometimes Creek

Edna Ferber Book Award Longlist — Sometimes Creek

Zona Gale Award for Short Fiction

Rick Bass/Montana Prize for Fiction

Jade Ring Award

Wisconsin Academy of Arts, Sciences & Letters Fiction Contest

Great Midwest Writing Contest

Midwestern Gothic Summer Flash Contest

Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award Finalist — Sometimes Creek

Masters Review Anthology Contest Longlist, Shortlist

Jade Ring Award Second Place (3)

Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction Longlist

Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters Fiction Contest, Honorable Mention (3)

Writer’s Digest, Honorable Mention (2)

CutBank Big Sky, Small Prose Finalist

Narrative Fall Story Award Finalist

Iowa Review Award Finalist

Steve lives in Wisconsin with his wife, three boys, and one dog.

He studies creative writing at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and elsewhere on the Internet.

Steve gets up on Monday morning and goes to bed later that day on Saturday night.

Recent Stories

Goat Milk

Yogovah

Dumplings

Peristalsmosis

Ronny

Then It Would Be Raining

2024 Events

  • 01/18 Online, 7:00 PM CST

    Online workshop run by Greg Renz, Jim Landwehr, and me. Join us as we talk through our strategies for bringing your ideas to completion. Register at Wisconsin Writers Association.

  • 2/21 | Mineral Point, WI

    Shake Rag Alley / Republic of Letters

    Wisconsin Writers Awards Reading

    7:00 PM

    151 High Street, Mineral Point, Wisconsin

  • 7/18 | Bayfield, WI

    Steve Fox and Carol Dunbar

    Honest Dog Books 6:00 PM
    40 S. Second St., Bayfield, WI

  • 9/7 | Sparta, WI

    Sparta Free Library

    11:00 AM

    Reading and writing discussion with local writers

    124 Main Street, Sparta, WI 54656

  • 9/21 | Cable, WI

    Forest Lodge Library

    Reading with Carol Dunbar

    2:00 PM

    13450 Co Hwy M, Cable, WI 54821

  • 11/14 | Hudson, WI

    Books-n Booze Reading, Food,

    & Themed Drinks

    Black Rooster Bistro

    6:00 PM

    Second Street, Hudson, WI 54016

What Steve is reading now. (And other things.)

“Haunted and unsettling, but somehow normal, Sometimes Creek is a virtuoso necromancy of people turned inside out and then folded back to a reality that we somehow recognize. Fox’s world, gently strange and skewed on the page, is a place
Thanks for making me look good, @ember_and_bean_roasting
In-line-at-the-pharmacy reading: Christmas Days, 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days by Jeanette Winterson. Includes recipes!
Sunday morning reading. The Thin Place, Kathryn Davis. “Davis, God bless her, assumes her readers are intelligent people who are interested in what they’re reading.” — Ann Patchett
A ray gothic sunlight comes your way in January: “By turns moving and funny and gothic, and always compelling, Sometimes Creek is a collection to savor." @kdfish1 author of Wild Life: Collected Works”
Holiday reading. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, published 1900.
Cursed Bunny, Bora Chung. Translated by Anton Hur. “They were always ready to wage another war.” —Ruler of the Wind and Sands
Book Mail that jukes and jives: Kind of Blue, by Christopher Chambers. “These are stories that celebrate the extraordinary nature of our ordinary lives.” — B J Hollers
You know what to do.
Order now. Don’t wait for the movie.
Tonight’s in-line-at-the-CVS reading - The Pallbearers Club, @paulgtremblay. The pharmacy. Always a good place to laugh out loud.
The question comes from a void: “How many times can you kill a ghost?” Order your copy now and find out in the story that inspired the cover design by @cornerstone.press, “The Butcher’s Ghost.” #amwritingfiction #amwrite