Hailed by ZZ Packer as "a master of tone, detail, and imagery," Andrew Siegris's debut collection, We Imagined It Was Rain, is a love song to Tennessee. These loosely connected stories are imbued with tenderness, seriousness, and a deep understanding of the human spirit. A young man moves to the mountains and builds an heirloom chest in the wake of his son’s death; a town official must make the decision to execute a circus elephant; two siblings help their father commit suicide;  a preacher picks up the pieces of his ruined church, and his marriage, after a devastating flood; locals share stories of the girl with eyelashes so long she can braid them. Siegrist demonstrates careful attention to the smallest moments, to the rain on a windowpane, to individual mementos passed down through generations, in this far-reaching and thoughtful collection.

We Imagined It Was Rain is the winner of our 2020 C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize.

"Hailed by ZZ Packer as "a master of tone, detail, and imagery", Andrew Siegrist's debut collection We Imagined It Was Rain is a love song to Tennessee. These loosely connected stories are imbued with tenderness, seriousness, and an understanding of the human spirit. A young man moves to the mountains and builds an heirloom chest in the wake of his son's death; a town official must make the decision to execute a circus elephant; two siblings help their father commit suicide; a preacher picks up the pieces of his ruined church, and his marriage, after a devasting flood; locals share stories of the girl with eyelashes so long she can braid them; a lonely man uses rain to paint. A striking and thoughtful debut, Siegrist demonstrates careful attention to the smallest moments, to the rain on a windowpane. We Imagined It Was Rain was the winner of our 2020 C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize"--

140677476