You Only Get Letters From Jail

Jodi Angel captures the voices of eleven boys on the cusp of childhood as they passively hack to pieces their innocence and identity. In “A Good Deuce”, the narrator and his best friend find numbing sex after his mother’s funeral. In “Cash or Trade”, the narrator and his father are both mesmerized b......more

Damn, this woman can write. Jodi Angel's YOU ONLY GET LETTERS FROM JAIL is an absolutely heartbreaking collection. The teenage boys at the center of these stories are rendered with such empathy and generosity, and the pieces add up to a world of boys and cars and longing and confusion and disappoint......more

Just flat out great short fiction in the vein of Richard Ford's Rock Springs. Jodi Angel is a powerhouse.......more

My love affair with Jodi Angel’s writing start about 3 years ago now, I had to get a copy of her first collection (read the review here) for the Tomales Bay Writer’s Conference because I was going to be in her fiction class. My friend, Sarah, was a huge fan of hers and could not have been more jealo......more

This is a thoroughly entertaining collection of short stories, all of which revolve around teenage boys facing pivotal moments. These are stories of grit; they are realistic and, at times, unpleasant to read because the hardships of life are captured so well. Jodi Angel is a wickedly talented writer......more