Sterling Watson is the author of six novels, including Sweet Dream Baby and Fighting in the Shade. His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the Prairie Schooner, and the Georgia Review, among other places. He was director of the Creative Writing Program at Eckerd College for twenty years and is the college’s Peter Meinke Professor Emeritus of Literature and Creative Writing. Suitcase City (Akashic Books) is his latest work. A man gets himself into a little bit of trouble, then a little bit more, then a lot. And then his whole world becomes a nightmare. How does he get himself out of this mess of his own creation? The answer involves the end of an extramarital affair, reconciliation with a daughter he has neglected, and a deadly encounter with a man who comes out of the past bearing bad news and the keys to a new life. Set in Tampa, Florida, in the late 1980s, Suitcase City captures the glitter of the high life and the steamy essence of low places in the Cigar City.
