A Short Move
In a small Virginia town in 1971, a high school football star runs out on his pregnant girlfriend. Six years later, that child meets his father for the first time and discovers the athlete within. Before long he is on the fast-track to the NFL, coached by a relentless Vietnam veteran uncle, nourished by a patient working mom, and defended by an ambitious girlfriend, all of whom tie their own hopes to his career. When he finally makes it, as Mitch "Wilk" Wilkins, New England's fearsome middle linebacker, it all seems preordained. Then, almost immediately, his life begins to fall apart: a billionaire owns him, his marriage is on the rocks, and his body is betraying him in stages. As Mitch and his wounded family press on, seeking meaning in a relentlessly incentive-driven and forward-moving life, the sacrifices necessary for success in sports--and in attaining the "American Dream"--are laid painfully and tragically bare.
Katherine Hill is the author of the novel The Violet Hour (Scribner 2013). With Sarah Chihaya, Merve Emre, and Jill Richards, she is also co-author of The Ferrante Letters: An Experiment in Collective Criticism (Columbia University Press, 2019). Her fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including AGNI, The Believer, Bookforum, Colorado Review, The Common, The Guardian, Guernica, The Literary Review, n+1, The Nation, The New Republic, The Paris Review Daily, Philadelphia Inquirer, Publishers Weekly, San Francisco Chronicle, and Tin House. Katherine is assistant professor of English at Adelphi University, assistant fiction editor at Barrelhouse, and a graduate of Yale and the Bennington Writing Seminars. Her writing has been awarded fellowships from the New York Public Library, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo. Born in Washington DC, she now lives in Brooklyn.
