Teresa Burns Gunther

Teresa is an award-winning author whose fiction and nonfiction have been published widely in US and international literary journals and anthologies. Her stories have been recognized in many contests. Most recently, her story “Conflagration” was awarded Gemini Magazine’s 2023 Short Story Prize and her story “War Paint” was awarded the 52nd New Millennium Award for Fiction, 2022.

Teresa is the founder of Lakeshore Writers Workshop where she leads workshops and classes and offers coaching and developmental editing services.

Hold Off the Night’s twelve stories find people wrestling with the difficulties inherent in composing a life, navigating change, and salvaging relationships, complicated by class and faith, fear and loyalty, and longings that resonate with the broader human experience.

By Teresa Burns Gunther

Hold Off the Night

Short Stories

I am a storyteller. I write to explore the world in someone else’s skin and to greater understand the struggles of living. These stories invite readers into the lives of people wrestling with the difficulties inherent in composing a life, navigating change, and salvaging relationships.  I hope readers will cheer for them, grieve with them, laugh with them, recognize something of themselves in the struggle, and perhaps for a little while know they are not alone.

Reviews

“Here we have a collection of family stories – motherhood, fatherhood, childhood – powerfully rendered with all their jagged, cutting edges. In story after beautiful story, Teresa Burns Gunther shows us how love must be enough, even when it isn’t.”

 – KAREN JOY FOWLER, PEN FAULKNER AWARD WINNER,
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SEVEN NOVELS AND THREE STORY COLLECTIONS

Reviews

“The fragile space between hope and disappointment is where Teresa Burns Gunther’s characters reside in this beautifully wrought collection. Husbands and wives, sisters and brothers, children, and parents; every relationship sings with the truths we know and sometimes wish we didn’t, and yet it’s difficult, if not impossible, to turn away from these people. HOLD OFF THE NIGHT is a paean to the small miracles of ordinary life.”

 

– LOUISE MARBURG, AUTHOR OF YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR DESTINATION

Reviews

“Teresa Burns Gunther’s collection of short stories, HOLD OFF THE NIGHT, shows off her exquisite writing and her bold, piercing look at domestic life, work life, love, and family. She’s got a lot to say and a brilliant way of saying it.”

 

– ELLEN SUSSMAN, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FRENCH LESSONS AND OTHER NOVELS