Life is not going as planned for Sybil Voss. Growing up in a small town on the Great Plains, she had one goal: to get out as soon as she could. She succeeded, moving to New York after college and building a reasonably happy life. But now she’ s back, the sole caregiver for her elderly father who suffers from “ media-induced psychosis” and can only communicate through TV sitcoms. But Sybil’ s making the best of it, running her antique business, “ New York ’ Tiques,” serving as mayor (since no one else ran), and organizing a town festival, Ahnwee Days. Problem is, things are not going well for her tiny town of Ahnwee. What was once a hopping little city with actual businesses and families ism now slowly becoming a ghost town. The remaining 200 residents have to put up with the insult of a lake so polluted that it glows in the dark, a wind turbine on the edge of town that occasionally golfs cars into the rough, and the ever-present smell of pig shit from the factory hog farm on the hill. How could it get worse? It can and does. The pig farmer says that the land the town sits on is his, and he wants to expand his manure pond. At the same time, a nearby casino may also have a claim to the land, and they want it for an RV park. That's not all: Green Systems Power, a wind turbine factory, wants the town’ s land for parts storage, and they’ ve bought a county commissioner to make it happen. With her friends, a lonely widowed yarn store owner and a midget— sorry, little person— beef jerky king with anger management issues, Sybil is fighting back. As Sybil says, “ Sure, Ahnwee is just an antique shop, strip joint, and meth lab, but it’ s OUR antique shop, strip joint, and meth lab.” Along the way we meet a mayor of a rival town with unclear motives, a nerdy strip club owner and his “ girls,” and an existential— and suicidal— town pastor. Our heroes hold a town meeting and a press conference, and they appeal to the county board, all with the same result: humorously dismal failure. The only thing left to try is for Sybil to run for, and win, a seat on the county board. How can that fail? " Ahnwee Days is a fun little novel about a fictional small town in Minnesota, called Ahnwee. The main character and mayor of the town, Sybil Voss, tries to save Ahnwee from being diminished into obscurity, just like many other small towns have before. Can she save the town from being erased off the map? Read Ahnwee Days to find out!" —  The Metropolitan "Ahnwee Days is this season’s funniest, most tender-hearted novel, an homage to Minnesota small towns and those who live in and care about them. Who couldn’t love a book that begins when Sybil’s father walks nude at the end of the town’s annual Ahnwee Days parade? Sybil, who can’t believe she’s back in her hometown, doesn’t pay much attention to local politics until she finds out Ahnwee faces three crises: the ugly pig farmer who owns a huge pit of pig poop wants to expand this stinky blight on the town; Native Americans who own the nearby casino want their land back, and the county wants the town demolished to sell bonds for future development. But the town will fight back. This is their home and nobody can take it from them."— Pioneer Press William E Burleson’ s short stories have appeared in over two dozen literary journals and anthologies to date, including the Evening Street Press & Review, The New Guard, and American Fiction 14 and 16, and he is the winner of the 2022 TulipTree Publishing contest for humor. Burleson also has published extensively in non-fiction, most notably his book, Bi America (Haworth Press, 2005), as well as for the Hennepin History Magazine and numerous other publications. Burleson is also the founder of and executive editor for Flexible Press, LLC, Minneapolis, publisher of a wide range of award-winning literary fiction. He hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he lives with his wife and two dogs a stone’ s throw from the Mississippi River. For examples of past work and more information, visit www.williamburleson.com.