Mad Prairie

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Mad Prairie
Mad Prairie (Book Cover).jpeg
AuthorKate McIntyre
Publisher University of Georgia Press
Publication date
2021
Pages176
ISBN 9780820360744

Mad Prairie is a short story collection by Kate McIntyre, published in 2021 by the University of Georgia Press. [1] It contains seven short stories and a novella, focused on McIntyre's home state of Kansas. [1] The stories are linked by their shared setting and by relationships between the characters, which are sometimes explained belatedly as a surprise reveal. [1]

Kansas is portrayed as a repressive place to live. [1] [2] Anuradha Prasad describes McIntyre's Kansas as "a dead end to dreams—stunted and stifling, its landscape uninspiring." [2] According to Patrick Carey writing for the Colorado Review, "ultra-traditional gender and sex relations" are "fundamental" to the collection's depiction of Kansas as "a black hole that binds together people" who know they should actually leave their current situation. [1] In an interview, McIntyre stated that she did not want the novel to be read as solely a criticism of Kansas, expressing affection for Kansans and for the Kansas landscape. [3]

Many of the stories focus on violence, especially in the novella. [1] McIntyre described "the unpredictability of male anger" as a core theme, and said she wanted to show how it can be mingled with love and humour. [3] The violence of the stories exists in parallel with mundane events that Carey describes as "the endless dopiness of people going through everyday life". [1] Prasad describes the characters as "a parade of passive, hapless, and sinister characters" who "tread wildly absurd and terrifying paths". [2] Carey compares McIntyre to both Shirley Jackson (for the Gothic horror of the violent events) and to George Saunders (for the humorous "dopey couples"). [1]

The collection won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction in 2020, which led to its publication by the University of Georgia Press the following year. [4] It was also selected as a 2022 Kansas Notable Book, chosen by the Kansas Center for the Book at the State Library of Kansas, [5] and longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for a debut short-story collection. [6]

Author

Kate McIntyre was raised in Salina, Kansas. [3] Her mother was the director of the Salina Education Foundation. [4] McIntyre began writing in elementary school. [3] She graduated from Salina Central High School in 2000, [4] and later attended Harvard University. [3] As of 2025, she is an associate professor of creative writing at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. [7] There, she edits the literary journal The Worcester Review. [4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Mad Prairie". Center for Literary Publishing. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  2. 1 2 3 "SPLIT ROCK REVIEW — Review of Mad Prairie — SHORELINE". SPLIT ROCK REVIEW. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Kate McIntyre's gothic stories rise from isolated ranch house settings". The Boston Globe. 2021-11-07. pp. N10. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Demuth, Gary. "Salina native wins Flannery O'Connor Award". Salina Journal. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  5. ↑ "2022 Kansas Notable Books". Frankfort Area News. 2022-06-16. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  6. ↑ "Announcing the 2022 PEN America Literary Awards Longlists". PEN America. 15 December 2021. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
  7. ↑ "About". Kate McIntyre. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
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