The Collected Stories

The Complete Stories of Carol WobigIn these seventeen stories and monologues, Carol Wobig introduces us to grieving widows and questioning nuns, daughters intent on saving their mothers and mothers unsure how to save their children, each of whom faces the question we all must ultimately ask: how to save ourselves. Wobig writes with unfailing sensitivity and empathy and in language that rings clear and true. Her characters and their experiences will live in the minds and hearts of readers long after the last page is turned.

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Reviews

“Her writing depicts a point of view not abundant in literary fiction: middle-aged and older women in small-town Wisconsin wrestling with the problems life throws at them. Women who wear flowered tops from Walmart….  In ‘The Piano,’ the widowed Marge sews dining room drapes into the dress she plans to be buried in after she kills herself, until the sight of an abandoned keyboard revives something in her. In ‘Learning to Drive,’ a dying twin prepares her sister for life without her in a practical way. In ‘Tying Up to the Pier,/ an elderly widow who feels oppressed by her bossy daughter finds a creative way to unburden herself.”

~ JIM HIGGINS, “Carol Wobig’s stories speak for Wisconsin women from small towns,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 


“Carol Wobig is a wonder! Don’t be deceived by her plainspoken, straightforward style. In only a few pages she’s able to locate the emotional depth of her characters and reveal the complexity of their lives. She deserves comparison to Grace Paley and Alice Munro, but Carol Wobig is a true original.”

~ LARRY WATSON, author of  Montana 1948  & As Good As Gone, writing & literature teacher at Marquette University


“Kiss goodbye to 5th Avenue. Carol Wobig’s characters live in trailer courts. They didn’t get piano lessons or have their teeth fixed. And now that they’re older, they wish their daughters would quit bossing them around – the tennies with holes cut out to make room for bunions are just fine, thank you! No one cries the blues in Wobig’s writing, people just get on with their fascinating lives. And you can’t help but love them.”

~ JUDY BRIDGES, founder of Redbird Studio, 
author of Shut Up & Write!


“Carol Wobig has her finger on the pulse of women poised on life’s thresholds. To remain in the safety of the expected or step across to the uncertainty of authenticity? To succumb to the urge to give up or summon the courage to go on? With deceptive simplicity,  Wobig’s stories are like individually-wrapped glimpses into the human heart. This collection  satisfies at the same time it begs for a second and third reading.”

~ KIM SUHR, author of Maybe I’ll Learn: Snapshots of a Novice Mom & Director of Red Oak Writing

About Carol

After my mother died, I was going through her scrapbooks and found a handwritten poem titled “Colors” (below). The “See me” in red on the bottom was written by my teacher at the time. I thought I was in trouble, of course, but she told me I should think about being a writer.

Click on image to enlarge

After leaving the convent in 1963, I thought that maybe I would like to be a writer, but I had read that Hemingway said a writer should get experience first. That advice merged with my lack of confidence, and I chose to write in secret for forty years, mostly journals and unfinished short stories.

Then, in 2003, I had a medical trauma: I was diagnosed with Acromegaly and had pituitary surgery and radiation. After I survived that, I decided that I probably could also survive a writing class.

I took “Shut Up, and Write” from Judy Bridges at Redbird Studio and joined the Tuesday writing round table. I still attend round tables and am grateful every day for all my writer friends.

At some point, Judy stopped over to see my new apartment, and as we chatted she said, “If I were you, I’d do an ebook.” The next morning at Starbuck’s—I write there most days—I thought about Judy’s advice and felt a weight lift off my chest. I would do it. And so my first story collection, Poached Is Not an Option, was soon available on Kindle and Nook. Judy edited it and her husband, Dave Blank, did the cover and formatting.

Now, five years later, The Collected Stories of Carol Wobig (published by Hidden Timber Books) includes the stories from Poached as well as eight new stories and a one-act play. With tears in my eyes at the thought of all who have helped me write these stories from my past through my present. I thank, first, Judy Bridges, founder of Redbird Studio, and Kim Suhr, who carried on the writing community with Red Oak Writing. Thanks also to all my roundtable leaders and writers for their valuable input over the years.

Selected Publications and Awards

  • The Wheel of Fortune Monologues performed by The Village Playhouse of      Wauwatosa and Brookfield Players, March, 2006
  • Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, Honorable Mention for “The Haircut,” 2006
  • Florence Lindemann Humor Contest, winner, for “Love,” 2007
  • 76th Annual Writer’s Digest  Writing Competition, Honorable Mention in the   Mainstream/Literary Short Story category for “Ravishing Red.”
  • 78th Annual Writer’s Digest  Writing Competition, Honorable Mention in the Mainstream/Literary Short Story category for “The Good Wife.”
  • The VisitGrey Sparrow Journal Issue 3, Winter 2009-2010
  • A, B or C, Clapboard House Journal, Summer, 2010
  • Poached Is Not an Option, March, 2012
  • The Collected Stories of Carol Wobig, Hidden Timber Press, 2017

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