The Consummation of Dirk

Callahan’s collection represents an exceptional level of accomplishment for a debut author, mixing styles, humor, and various international identities and locales, as well as highly wrought representations of misery. Callahan has said that the initial working title for the collection was “The Book of Pain,” a title that fails to account for the imagination and wit that also pervades the book.                                                                                            

Callahan’s stories from the collection have appeared or are forthcoming inThe Collagist,Kill Author,The Lifted Brow,Pank,Underwater New York,Unsaid, andWashington Square Review. The title piece in the book, a mini-novella featuring Dallas Maverick Dirk Nowitzki that first appeared inThe Collagist, achieved brief blogosphere notoriety last autumn, written up at both Deadspin and ESPN.com.