An Idaho farmer who aches for absolution after a tragedy is given one more chance at redemption. Two runaways cross paths in a Tennessee bus station with only one ticket between them. A family sees looters racing toward their home as they escape an Oregon wildfire. A young couple takes a reckless turn off a state highway in Utah and find themselves in a nightmarish government biohazard area.

These and 46 more shorts make up an anthology that will surprise readers with each new thought-provoking story as they skip across different genres, moods, and states of mind. Together, they provide a character-driven sampling of the American experience over the last 60 years — the kind and the cruel, the heroic and criminal — in unpredictable and suspenseful ways.

50 States is a debut collection of short stories that captures the human condition and how perception shapes destiny. The book spans several literary genres, with each short story set in a different state across America. It broke into the top 100 bestsellers for literary fiction short stories on Amazon for three consecutive months in 2022 and won first place for short stories in the Spring 2022 BookFest Awards.