Valerie Trueblood is the author of the novel Seven Loves, and the short story collections Search Party, Marry or Burn, and Criminals. She's been a finalist for the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award, a finalist for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and a recipient of the B&N Discover Award. She lives in Seattle.

Table of Contents
From MARRY OR BURN, 2010
Invisible River 6
Choice in Dreams 26
Trespass 39
Phantom Father 62
Luck 74
Beloved, You Looked into Space 99

From SEARCH PARTY: STORIES OF RESCUE, 2013
The Finding 152
The Magic Pebble 159
The Llamas 182
Think Not Bitterly of Me 196
The Stabbed Boy 233
The Blue Grotto 239
Later or Never 258
Who Is He that Will Harm You? 275

From CRIMINALS: LOVE STORIES, 2016
Bride of the Black Duck 301
His Rank 315
Astride 319
Kisses 333
Da Capo 360
You Would Be Good 384
Sleepover 391
Novel of Rose 432
Criminals 437
TERRARIUM, 2018
1. Cherries
Aliens 456
Helen of Troy 458

Dogs of War and Peace 463
The Book Review 465

Mulierculae 471

The Witch 473

Crisco 476

Cherries 481
2. The Infralife
The Tamarins 483

Ghost 486

The Song 489

Stay 491

Tarp 497

Two Dogs 500
3. Earthly Love
Hero 506

Afternoon Tango 513

Two Birthdays 517

Whiteout 520

Forced Entry 523

Seurat 527

The Leopard 533

Raccoon 536

Flag of the Nude 541
The Bull 543

Orogeny 547
4. Chosen
Chosen 554

Where We Grew Up 559

Harvest 560

The Visiting Revivalist 561

The Girl Who Told 563

Advice 564

Freeway Rescues 565

River Boat 566

This collection will cement Valerie Trueblood's standing as one of the finest American short story writers at work today: gathered together for the first time are stories spanning her acclaimed career, presented along with her newest work
Valerie Trueblood's writing has been praised by The New York Times as "an exercise in literary restraint and extreme empathy." Selected here are stories from her previous collections-finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award-alongside her newest collection, which lends this book its name.
The new stories collected within Terrarium represent an exciting direction for the author: a condensing of narrative and, in some cases, a departure from it into another state of mind.
It's hard to describe any of Trueblood's stories as "typical." She does not write about people from a single class, or caste, or geographical area. She has not written a single story emblematic of her work. She does not write stories fantastical or eccentric. Ordinary life, her stories may be saying, is fantastical enough. She is more like Babel than Chekhov. In all her writing, it's clear that Trueblood believes that the short story can carry both the lightest and heaviest of loads. Terrarium highlights the achievement of simply living, the stories within often unresolved but in a state of continuation, expansion. Trueblood's stories aren't merely "about" their subjects, they're inside them.