num_pages: 89
description: Debra Di Blasi writes from the heart of the Postmodern American Gothic. A native Missourian, she plumbs the depths of psychosexual repercussion and searing sentiment behind the region’s parched, pitchfork-bearing façade. Though her writing has been widely published in literary journals,  Drought , paired here with a second novella,  Say What You Like , is a stunning first foray into book form. In  Drought , Di Blasi dissects a young couple’s relationship on a failing cattle ranch, allowing us to see all the subcutaneous mental and physical violence they endure. As unceasing heat kills the couple’s livestock, Di Blasi focuses a science writer’s exactitude and a poet’s charged restraint on the human cost of rural tragedy.  Say What You Like  offers an even more ruthless examination of a couple’s deep-seated pain. Pared down to short, numbered sections, the relationship of a nameless “He” and “She” is laid bare by Di Blasi’s unflinching skill with the scalpel. Debra Di Blasi is a daring young writer of the top order.
language: English
title: Drought & Say What You Like
titlecomplete: Drought & Say What You Like
genres: Literature
ratings_count: 42
publisher: New Directions