Guista, Michael

PERSONAL:

Education: Holds an M.F.A. in English from the University of California, Irvine, and a master's degree in psychology.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Allan Hancock College, Santa Maria Campus, 800 S. College Dr., Santa Maria, CA 93454. E-mail—mguista@hancockcollege.edu.

CAREER:

Writer and educator. Has taught at Allan Hancock College, Santa Maria, CA.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Katharine Bakeless Nason Prize for fiction, 2004, for Brain Work: Stories; fellowship, California Arts Council.

WRITINGS:

Brain Work: Stories, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2005.

Contributor to literary journals, including American Short Fiction, North American Review, Quarterly West, and Prairie Schooner.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author Michael Guista is a prolific writer, contributing short stories and essays to numerous literary journals, including American Short Fiction, North American Review, and Prairie Schooner. He also has taught creative writing and English courses at community college for more than fifteen years, including at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California.

In 2005, Guista published his first book, Brain Work: Stories. The book was selected as the winner of the 2004 Katharine Bakeless Nason Prize for fiction. "Originally," the author told an interviewer in a Q&A session published on Guista's Web site, "the book was subtitled ‘Stories in Search of a Soul,’ as that's the main concern of the book for me: does the soul exist or is it merely the brain at work? Is the soul real, or does the brain manufacture the sensation of its existence?" It contains fourteen short stories, many featuring characters who struggle with mental illness. The first story of the collection, "Filling the Spaces Between Us," features a psychiatrist whose wife suffered an accident with a horse that left her without the ability to discern emotions. Other stories deal with strained interpersonal relationships, such as in "The Front Yard," which tells the story of a husband returning home after a night out to find that his wife has moved their belongings out onto the front lawn. "California" focuses on a couple on the verge of divorce. Stories in the collection also include "A Walk Outside" and "Step Four," the latter featuring a troubled husband and father who decides to give up his medication and therapy for the day. "Superficially," wrote Cherie Thiessen in January, "many of the stories seem to be about psychological treatment for abnormal behavior—both neurosis and psychosis—but time and time again the characters and the readers find themselves up against the intangible, the inexplicable, as the story slips from solid ground."

Overall, critics responded positively to Brain Work, many praising the author's first work and noting the book's unique and captivating stories. Brain Work is "ultimately intriguing and challenging," wrote Marta Segal Block in a review for Booklist. Others agreed. Guista's stories are "fresh, distinctly unorthodox, intellectually satisfying," observed one Kirkus Reviews contributor. "There are no bad stories in Brain Work, and quite a few that are excellent," declared Mario Bruzzone in SF Station. "If Guista does not answer the grand questions that his stories put forth, then it is because no one can. Our understanding of the working of the brain is still lacking; so too is our understanding of the soul." "These stories bring something better than a theory," concluded Priya Jain in the New York Times Book Review: "the creepy reminder that ‘the thin curtains between "them" and "us" don't really exist at all."