Only Witness — Jim Powell

Jim Powell is the founder of the Indiana Writers Center, a nonprofit organization that has supported Indiana writers for forty years. Among the characters you'll find in his  collection of nineteen stories are a young woman who's under the thrall of a former Nazi, a man who's shepherding his elderly mother through Alzheimer's Disease, a child used as a pawn by his mother, and a writer who connects with an old friend who will never change. The settings range from Indianapolis to Vienna, Krakow, Puerto Vallarta, and beyond -- but no matter its setting, each story is filtered through the lens of a writer who knows who he is and where he's from. Powell's stories are intense, even disturbing at times. But they are always true. Each one reflects the wisdom and generosity of a life lived, a witness to the vast complexity of the human condition.

Jim Powell's book of stories, Only Witness, bears insightful and lyrical witness to the everyday comedy and tragedy of our time, with an admirably authentic Hoosier flavor. Powell joins the great tradition of Nicholson, Tarkington and Vonnegut.    -- Dan Wakefield, author of Going All the Way

Jim Powell has long served Indiana literature--both in his support of emerging writers and his knowledge and insight into the historical canon, which he has helped define. And now in this new collection of short fiction, he adds his own unique voice to the list of writers who bear witness to this particular place. Even when his characters leave the Midwest for Europe, Mexico, or California, in remarkable Chekhovian stories such as “Night Train to Vienna,” “Klezmer Music” and “The Cardsellers,” their Midwestern sensibilities travel with them, transforming and interrogating all they see.    -- Susan Neville, author of Sailing the Inland Sea

The stories in Only Witness reveal Jim Powell's finely-honed observational skills. He witnesses children, young people on the prowl, families, a woman married to a sex addict, the son of a woman with Alzheimer's, and more. I am charmed and moved by these stories. Some are tender-hearted and funny, some keenly honest and tough-minded. Buy this book and prepare to be entertained!    -- Patricia Henley, author of In the River Sweet and Other Heartbreaks