![]() Moniz expertly dodges the more common pitfalls of early short story writers such as cheap plot tricks or lyrical gymnastics no overreaching for epiphanic clarity. This is to say that in many respects Milk Blood Heat is difficult to imagine as a debut, given that the stories read with the ease of an author well into an established career. With these stories, Moniz has built eleven perfect cooking fires. There are no shortcuts, no quick and fast fixes, it is all the result of time and hard work. Anyone who has spent a cold and dreary night camping knows a successful cooking fire is not a matter of crackling sticks and bursting flames, but of meticulously layered coals, fuel accumulated over hours of attentive labor. In this case, the heat is also elemental to the aesthetic and narrative architecture. There is the Florida heat, certainly, as most of the stories are set in Jacksonville and the surrounding area, but there is more to it than mere setting. ![]() ![]() ![]() Moniz’s debut collection, Milk Blood Heat, because these stories are fire. Heat is the operative word in the title of Dantiel W. ![]()
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