Charles Dickinson

Charles Dickinson takes American fiction back to the complexity of modern life and love with his characteristically incisive irony and humor. Critics have compared him to such masters as Margaret Atwood, Ann Tyler, Michael Crichton and Raymond Carver. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire and The Atlantic, among others, and two stories, "Risk" and "Child in the Leaves," were included in O. Henry collections. He has received generous praise for his novels, Waltz in Marathon, Crows, The Widows’ Adventures, Rumor Has It, A Shortcut in Time, and its sequel, A Family in Time, and his collection of stories, With or Without.

Born in Detroit, Dickinson lives near Chicago with his wife.

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A Shortcut in Time

"Dickinson is a splendid writer who has yet to reach the audience he deserves.  After a decade's hiatus, he edges close to sci-fi in this psychologically rich and engrossing novel about time travel.  Reminiscent of Jack Finney's TIME AND AGAIN, but with it's own distinctive flair."  -- Publisher's Weekly 

Charles Dickinson's novels and short stories have won widespread acclaim for their deft characterization, humanity, and humor. Newsday described him as "a writer thoroughly in command of his art," while the Chicago Tribune wrote "he can surprise us at almost every turn."

Now Dickinson slips beyond the bounds of mundane realism to create a poignant fantasy that bears comparison to the work of Jack Finney and Jonathan Carroll.

Euclid, Illinois, is a town of many shortcuts, between houses, through orchards, and across fields. Josh Winkler, a local artist and longtime resident, knows these irregular pathways well, but is thoroughly taken aback when a hasty dash down a familiar walk deposits him fifteen minutes in the past--literally. At first, Josh is more intrigued than alarmed by this accidental time travel. Then a lost young woman appears, claiming to be from 1908...

As his life, his family, his town, and even history itself begin to unravel, Josh gradually realizes that his only salvation may lie in A Shortcut in Time.

Charles Dickinson has written a moving and unforgettable book about the way the past can affect the present as well as, sometimes, the other way around.

(Forge Books, January 2004)

The Widows’ Adventures

Two widows take to the road across America in this ambitious novel by Charles Dickinson. Helene, who is blind, does the driving. Her sister, Ina, shows the way, and together they break free into the light they feared had gone out of their lives. They cross a landscape whose dangers are secondary to the perilous memories and secrets they share. Their goal-Los Angeles, home to Ina’s children-shimmers like a mirage on the horizon of their plans. Charles Dickinson has invested these two women with a remarkable spirit: In a vast and intricate weaving of truth and memory he has created two unforgettable sisters with the courage, the wit, and the tenacity to embark upon a journey that redefines for themselves and their families the kind of women they will be for the rest of their lives.

(William Morrow, March 2015)

With or Without

Set in family homes, factories, shops, small-town streets, backyards-the familiar landscapes of our everyday lives-these stories take us by surprise as they plumb the complex and often tenuous connections that exist between child and parent, husband and wife, friend and friend, the individual and his own thoughts.

In each of the ten stories, Charles Dickinson puts a spin on the ordinary. It is the pleasure of these stories that they enable us to see what would perhaps otherwise remain hidden: humor in the most mundane situation, eloquence in a simple human gesture, the quirky, telling, sometimes ennobling moments in the day-to-dayness of life.

(William Morrow, September 2015)