"Reverberations of Elizabeth Strout's tales from Crosby, Maine, echo in Ryle's charming series of linked stories about loneliness and belonging in a small town." - Washington Post
"Comparisons to OLIVE KITTERIDGE are inevitable, but the tone and expansiveness of this novel-in-stories hark back to Spoon River Anthology (if not Chaucer). Thoroughly refreshing: an astute portrait of contemporary small-town America that's genuinely fun to read." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review
One foggy morning, an email appears in inboxes across the small town of Lanier, Indiana. ‘Invitation to Participate: Sexual Practices in a Small Midwestern Town,’ the subject line reads. A link leads to an extensive survey. Street by street and resident by resident–from the basketball coach in retirement with a bad lung, to the bartender finding her way to writing, to the health department worker with a vendetta against the hot-dog vendor–the email opens up the secret (and not so secret) lives of one community, and reveals the surprising complexity of love, friendship, and belonging in our post-Covid times.
"I've not been this undone and awed by a short story collection since THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES by Deesha Philyaw. Robyn Ryle proves that narrative fearlessness, ambition and radical play reach their highest resonance when foundationed on an ungodly talent and stunning skill. It's impossible to say what's more soul-snatching here: the premises or the writing. It's hard to deliver on what feels like an impossible book to imagine. It's harder to make the writing of that impossible book seem easy, or even inevitable. Robyn Ryle does both. The short story and literary sex are somewhere sweating and smiling, so thankful that they are alive, and in union, again."-Kiese Laymon, author of HEAVY, AN AMERICAN MEMOIR
"Ah, the Midwest, home of flatness and reticence. Like the people of Winesburg, Ohio, the residents of Lanier, Indiana, harbor their hopes and fears privately, afraid no one else will understand. Robyn Ryle knows her small town inside and out, celebrating the strange and mundane equally. SEX OF THE MIDWEST isn’t about sex so much as love and loneliness, and, ultimately, belonging.’"- Stewart O’Nan, author of EMILY, ALONE
"Set during post-Covid societal reentry, SEX OF THE MIDWEST is proof of the multitudes people contain: quirks, fetishes, gripes, and great depth. With humor and moments of grace, Robyn Ryle depicts young love, new old love, the passage of time, and our remarkable human ability to learn and change. I don’t know if Lanier, Indiana is a real place or not, but these delightful linked stories sure makes it feel real."- Daphne Kalotay, author of Grace Paley prize-winning THE ARCHIVISTS
Robyn Ryle is a writer and chronicler of small town life. Though originally from Kentucky, she’s been a Hoosier for the past twenty years. She is the author of two award-winning books of nonfiction (She/He/They/Me and Throw Like a Girl, Cheer Like a Boy) and a young adult novel (Fair Game). When she’s not writing, she teaches sociology and gender studies to college students in southern Indiana.
Genre: General Fiction
"Comparisons to OLIVE KITTERIDGE are inevitable, but the tone and expansiveness of this novel-in-stories hark back to Spoon River Anthology (if not Chaucer). Thoroughly refreshing: an astute portrait of contemporary small-town America that's genuinely fun to read." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review
One foggy morning, an email appears in inboxes across the small town of Lanier, Indiana. ‘Invitation to Participate: Sexual Practices in a Small Midwestern Town,’ the subject line reads. A link leads to an extensive survey. Street by street and resident by resident–from the basketball coach in retirement with a bad lung, to the bartender finding her way to writing, to the health department worker with a vendetta against the hot-dog vendor–the email opens up the secret (and not so secret) lives of one community, and reveals the surprising complexity of love, friendship, and belonging in our post-Covid times.
"I've not been this undone and awed by a short story collection since THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES by Deesha Philyaw. Robyn Ryle proves that narrative fearlessness, ambition and radical play reach their highest resonance when foundationed on an ungodly talent and stunning skill. It's impossible to say what's more soul-snatching here: the premises or the writing. It's hard to deliver on what feels like an impossible book to imagine. It's harder to make the writing of that impossible book seem easy, or even inevitable. Robyn Ryle does both. The short story and literary sex are somewhere sweating and smiling, so thankful that they are alive, and in union, again."-Kiese Laymon, author of HEAVY, AN AMERICAN MEMOIR
"Ah, the Midwest, home of flatness and reticence. Like the people of Winesburg, Ohio, the residents of Lanier, Indiana, harbor their hopes and fears privately, afraid no one else will understand. Robyn Ryle knows her small town inside and out, celebrating the strange and mundane equally. SEX OF THE MIDWEST isn’t about sex so much as love and loneliness, and, ultimately, belonging.’"- Stewart O’Nan, author of EMILY, ALONE
"Set during post-Covid societal reentry, SEX OF THE MIDWEST is proof of the multitudes people contain: quirks, fetishes, gripes, and great depth. With humor and moments of grace, Robyn Ryle depicts young love, new old love, the passage of time, and our remarkable human ability to learn and change. I don’t know if Lanier, Indiana is a real place or not, but these delightful linked stories sure makes it feel real."- Daphne Kalotay, author of Grace Paley prize-winning THE ARCHIVISTS
Robyn Ryle is a writer and chronicler of small town life. Though originally from Kentucky, she’s been a Hoosier for the past twenty years. She is the author of two award-winning books of nonfiction (She/He/They/Me and Throw Like a Girl, Cheer Like a Boy) and a young adult novel (Fair Game). When she’s not writing, she teaches sociology and gender studies to college students in southern Indiana.
Genre: General Fiction
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