Excerpt from You Have a Friend in 10A by Maggie Shipstead, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"It's getting dark."

"We'll be quick."

"All the guys are busy?"

"It's campfire night, and C.J. and Wayne went to town." Still she hesitated, he hoped not because she sensed his nervousness or smelled whiskey on him. "I thought you could take Hotrod. Give him some exercise."


This excerpt from The Cowboy Tango is from Maggie Shipstead's 2022 collection You Have a Friend in 10A. The Cowboy Tango was first published in 2009 in the Virginia Quarterly Review and is available in full at VQR; but it is possible that this earlier version will differ from the story published in You Have a Friend in 10A.

Excerpted from You Have a Friend in 10A by Maggie Shipstead. Copyright © 2022 by Maggie Shipstead. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.