The Detroit Frankfurt School Discussion Group

Colin, a newly divorced lecturer of critical theory, wants to spice up his life. He attempts to learn Russian, gives online dating a go, and even entertains the idea of becoming an alcoholic—but nothing sticks. So when two young women he’s never met before ask him to party, he ignores the red flags and climbs into their car. Almost as quickly as they pull away from the curb, Colin learns they’re not headed to a party: they’re headed to an abandoned building in Detroit to discuss the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. And Colin is slated to be the guest speaker, whether he likes it or not.

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Douglas Trevor is the author of the short story collection The Thin Tear in the Fabric of Space, which won the 2005 Iowa Short Fiction Award and was a finalist for the 2006 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for first fiction, and the novel Girls I Know, which was the recipient of the 2013 Balcones Fiction Prize. Trevor's work has appeared most recently in The Iowa Review, The Notre Dame Review, The Minnesota Review, and New Letters. He has also had stories in The Paris Review, Glimmer Train, Epoch, Black Warrior Review, The New England Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and more than a dozen other publications. His short fiction has been anthologized in—among other places—The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Michigan, where he teaches in the Helen Zell Writers' Program.