The Quiet Part Loud
Winner of the 2017 Turnbuckle Chapbook Contest, selected by Kara Vernor
The Quiet Part Loud is a collection of eleven flash fictions diving into the lives of restless, often lawless youths on the rural East Coast during late-aughts. Whether having lost a home or feeling like home is slowly disappearing, these characters act out in ways familiar and strange. Runaways fight security guards, houses explode, theft is flagrant, sex abounds, mannequin arms bob from Buick windows, and all forms of communication get very loud before fully breaking down.
ISBN: 978-1-952897-02-3
59pg
Published January 27, 2019
"The Quiet Part Loud has that rare quality of looking good from every angle. The characters are memorable, the story arcs are delicate and satisfying, each word is earned, and the sentences, often pithy and vernacular, are worlds unto themselves. This chapbook is for youth—its freedom and rapture but also its solipsism and cruelty."
—Kara Vernor, author of Because I Wanted to Write You a Pop Song
"As a child I was afraid to touch glitter; what if it got in my eyes? Now, after reading this book, I know the answer: I ache, and the world sparkles."
—Lindsay Hunter, author of Eat Only When You're Hungry
"A book like a jungle gym made of perfect sentences, the whole thing alive and bright and true."
—Ben Loory, author of Tales of Falling and Flying
"I know people say 'so-and-so takes you places' in blurbs all the time, but Tyler Barton really takes you places, some of which include: an exploding house, a Papa John's Dumpster, a green house, a Ft. Lauderdale shelter, a Kentucky cemetery. It's a hell of a trip, packed with unforgettable travel companions."
—Juan Martinez, author of Best Worst American
"A series of stories that buttonhole you and speak menacingly into your ear in declarative, sinister sentences about the shit they’ve done."
—Joe Walters, Independent Book Review