Janis Hubschman’s debut collection, Take Me With You Next Time, features women held captive by heartbreak, misguided desire, and bewildering grief. They search for answers from psychics, hypnotists, old lovers, Charles Darwin, and the stars—until, at last, they discover they already possess the insight they seek. Morally complex and often wryly funny, these twelve stories illuminate unpredictable ways smart, resilient women persevere to break free from their restraints.
Advance Praise for TAKE ME WITH YOU NEXT TIME
“The women in Janis Hubschman’s funny, whip-smart stories have seen some things: they’ve raised children, had jobs come and go, said goodbye to parents and pets and houses. They’ve watched their husbands change—or not—from the men they married, and felt themselves change—or not—from who they once planned on being. With killer lines and keen observations, these sharp, moving stories speak to anyone who’s ever had to reckon with the decisions that brought them this far, and tried to figure out what lies ahead.”
—Caitlin Horrocks, author of Life Among the Terranauts
“In these vivid, stirring, and often laugh-out-loud funny stories, you will meet women who might feel familiar—like an old friend, a teacher, an aunt—until Hubschman’s descriptive powers and diamond-cut scenes render them new again and again, to the reader as well as to themselves. Read Take Me With You Next Time for its insights on female friendship, marriage, generational caretaking, and the unavoidable complications of these entanglements; then let your heart be shifted, as mine was, by the shimmer of hope that Hubschman manages to reveal within them.”
—Kate Milliken, author of Kept Animals
“The women in these stories are decades apart in age, yet they all want the same thing: to be truly seen—by their husbands and lovers, children, the world. Hubschman sees them, and she shows them to us—their faults and failures, successes and hopes—all presented with dark humor and deep compassion and startling moments of surprise. Take Me With You Next Time will leave you wanting to be taken along on all of this masterful storyteller’s next times.”
—Lori Ostlund, author of After the Parade & The Bigness of the World
photo credit: Joey Pedras
Janis Hubschman
Janis Hubschman has published dozens of stories in literary magazines that include Cimarron Review, Chautauqua Journal, Colorado Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Saturday Evening Post, Southern Humanities Review, and others.
Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, Glimmer Train Bulletin, and New York Runner Magazine.
Her work has been supported with a Rona Jaffe-Bread Loaf Fiction Scholarship and a fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Awards for her stories include a first place award from Glimmer Train and Bellingham Review's Tobias Wolff Award.
Janis teaches fiction writing at Montclair State University and has served for eight years on the Bread Loaf Admissions Board. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, a short drive from their two daughters.
Contact: janishubschman@me.com