Rory’s Not That Guy
And Other Tales from Middle America
Publication date April 1, 2026
Preorders coming soon
Mark your calendars:
Launch event at Nokomis Library,
Monday, April 6, 2025
“The satirical edge always lurking somewhere pulls together these stories’ picture of life in our time.”
Rory’s Not That Guy: And Other Tales from Middle America takes the reader on a tour of “flyover country,” from struggling small towns to honky-tonks to the parts of cities that don’t make it onto postcards.
It’s 19 short stories, many humorous, many not, include coming of age in a hopeless small town (“Art”), what if you could go back in time and go to high school again (“No Returns”), and what happens when your carefully arranged world is disrupted by civil unrest (“Willie Wallace”). Fifteen of the nineteen stories have been published in a variety of literary magazines and anthologies, including The New Guard, Evening Street Press & Review, and American Fiction.
What links these stories—beyond geography—is the shared humanity of its characters. Each are struggling with a world which for some is hostile, and for all confusing and beyond their control. Some are lost, some are still trying, and some have given up, but all are sympathetic and believable.
In the end, the reader will find that rather than something to fly over, these stories reflect if not the postcards vision of Middle America, but for so many the reality.
“From an amuse-bouche to a three-course meal, Burleson’s stories are tasty and satisfying and proof positive the inner worlds of quiet souls, folks one might be tempted to dismiss, explode in riotous, hotdish, hot mess. Often painfully hilarious, these stories are futuristic, contemporary, and nostalgic all at once. Rich in detail, rife with compelling characters, Burleson’s collection is a joyful triumph.”
“William E Burleson’s Rory’s Not That Guy taps into a vein of trope-ridden Americana within all of us, not just those of us living in middle America, but the deft skill he possesses and flexes is that he is able to do this without irony, prejudice, or a reliance on stereotype. As he thoughtfully holds the mirror up to the flaws that gnaw at the American spirit, he doesn’t necessarily offer solutions, but he does offer humor, humility, and a surefire helluva ride.”
“Tales from Middle America springs from a Protean imagination (supported by an impressively various craft repertoire). William Burleson sometimes sounds like a Damon Runyon for the 21st century, but is sometimes a lot more experimental than that. The satirical edge always lurking somewhere pulls together these stories’ picture of life in our time.”
