In this volume, readers will be drawn into Herd's fertile literary cornucopia as his vivid prose captures the imagination. Written with brevity and stark economy of language, these short vignettes are a sampling of the American landscape as seen through the eyes of characters from the proud and stoic to the broken and tragic. From high school love notes to a drug runner's day; from a boy's first fistfight to the unexpected aftermath of a woman's first experience of marijuana, Herd's stories travel the backroads, sending postcards of life as it is lived.
"Herd's pieces are tightly crafted, many honing in on a single scene or conversation. His sharp prose cuts cleanly in and out of the lives of his myriad protagonists."
The Foxing Review
"Empty Pockets collects nineteen new and sixty-four previously published stories from one of America's masters of the form."
Largehearted Boy
"Nineteen new stories by Herd join the sixty-four selected picks, making for a fictional world that is uniquely his."
