The Mason Spirit

Steve Amick, MFA
Creative Writing ’91

Pantheon, 2009

Set in pre- and post-World War II Chicago, this love story begins with Wink Dutton, a soldier and photographer recently discharged because of an injury to his hand. As Dutton desperately seeks to make ends meet, he discovers his neighbor Sal Chesterton pays the bills by producing pin-up girls for soldiers, even using herself as the object of affection. Amick writes about Dutton and Chesterton’s personal struggles to cope with the changes to American life after World War II.

Amick received a BA from St. Lawrence University. His short stories have appeared in Playboy, The Southern Review, The New England Review, Story, and McSweeney’s; in the anthology The Sound of Writing; and on National Public Radio.