A Place in the World: Stories

Winner of the 2025 Drue Heinz Literature Prize

Stories of Ordinary People Experiencing Extraordinary Circumstances

The eleven stories in A Place in the World are character-driven portrayals of various lives transformed by random events or twists of fate. A young woman living on the coast of Maine confronts her painful past when her little brother comes to visit after being released from rehab, a hopeless gay hustler, in for the long con, instead finds himself falling in love while vacationing in Denmark, a failed New York City actor afraid of commitment goes on a comic rant and embraces an epiphany while cat-sitting for a friend. In separate, first-person narratives, a struggling husband and wife take turns describing the impact of a scandalous crisis in their marriage, and a settled suburban dad arrives at a beach house for the weekend, only to realize he robbed one of the other houseguests thirty-four years earlier. In this poignant, engaging collection, Gaythwaite offers compassion and surprising optimism while celebrating astonishing resilience in the face of life’s persistent challenges.

Bill Gaythwaite’sdebut novel, Underburn, was published by Delphinium Books in 2023. His short fiction has appeared in Subtropics, Chicago Quarterly Review, Willow Springs, South Carolina Review, Puerto del Sol, and many other publications. Bill’s work has been included in several anthologies and has been a finalist in numerous competitions. Three of his stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Bill is currently the Assistant Director for Special Populations at Columbia Law School. He lives in New Jersey with his partner.