Escape Velocity

Though Charles Portis is best known for his fiction writing, he is also a prolific essayist, travel writer, and newspaper reporter.

Collected here in Escape Velocity, edited by Jay Jennings, is his "miscellany" –– journalism, short fiction, memoir, and even the play Delray's New Moon, published for the first time in this volume.  Portis covers topics as varied as the civil rights movement, road tripping in Baja, and Elvis' s visits to his aging mother for publications such as the New York Herald Tribune and Saturday Evening Post.  Fans of Portis’s droll Southern humor and quirky characters will be thrilled at this new addition to his library, and those not yet familiar with his work will find a great introduction to him here.  Also included are tributes by accomplished authors including Donna Tartt and Ron Rosenbaum.