Home Is a Made-Up Place

Home is a Made-Up Place is here!

Winner: Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award for short fiction

Praise For Home is a Made-Up Place

“Home is a Made-Up Place expertly plumbs the complicated and surprising depths of motherhood and daughterhood while introducing characters who thrill and linger. A tender and exacting debut from an exciting new voice.”

-Marie-Helene Bertino, author of Parakeet

“A poignant and melancholy collection of stories about the constant search for a place to belong.”

-Kirkus Reviews

“Stories that traverse the fraught territories between old conflicts and new starts, old patterns and uncomfortable realizations. Peopled by characters who are as complex and compromised as your own family, this is a lucid and compassionate collection by a writer to watch.”

-Cate Kennedy, author of Like a House on Fire

“Plank’s stories are capacious and evocative, filled with the human dynamics that often are not found in popular discourse. The settings are characters unto themselves and the characters are multi-layered, relatable, and fully realized within the pages of this collection…the ones you typically only hear about when someone asks, in hushed tones: ‘did you hear about…?’ Once you read, you’ll be able to say, yes, you have.”

-Jennifer Fliss, author of The Predatory Animal Ball

“Home is a Made-up Place is an exquisitely crafted collection that explores the elusive concept of home—what it means, when we find it, and when it slips away. Ronit Plank takes us on a poignant journey across America where with subtlety and depth she examines the broken pieces of her characters’ lives. Each story presents a unique perspective, as Plank breathes life into her characters, providing readers with a deeply immersive experience full of profound emotions and insights. This book is for anyone who loves to get lost in beautifully written short stories that intimately explore the relationship with ourselves, others, and the places we call home.” -Ari Hornaver, author of A Girl Called Rumi

About The Book

Home is a Made-Up Place invites readers into the lives of people grappling with emotional injuries and confronting the past to become who they wish to be. Set in NYC, New England, the Southwest, and rural Alaska, a single mother fights to protect her son, a daughter tries to forget her missing mother, a couple struggles to keep a marriage together and their children safe, and a family must face the truth about their father. Bracing and intimate, Home is a Made-Up Place is a collection of stories about reclaiming personal power, recognizing the difference between what can and cannot be changed, and the pull of familial attachments despite the toll they might take.