Hindsight is Joan Corwin’s debut collection of fiction. The book features seven short stories.

Author: Joan Corwin
Paperback: 208 pages, 2025
ISBN-13:  9781947175686

Before turning to full-time fiction writing, Joan Corwin taught literature and Victorian social history at Chicago-area colleges and universities. She has received several writing awards, among them, the Dana Portfolio Award, the Press 53 Open Award, the Chris O’Malley Prize in Fiction, and the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction Prize. Her short story Hindsight was a Chicago Public Radio “Stories on Stage” winner. Her fiction has appeared in a number of anthologies and literary journals such as StoryQuarterly, Sycamore Review and The Madison Review. She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and their two dogs.

Corwin’s masterfully crafted short stories explore the roles of memory, storytelling, and imagination in our lives, and the shadowy realm of the mind where all three intersect. Where does so-called reality slip into fantasy, and where does what is fabricated morph into what is recalled? And, most importantly, do we even need to tell the difference? Laced with subtle humor and often a touch of the macabre, this important debut asks questions that will surprise and delight you.

–Paula Peterson, author of Penitent, with Roses: An HIV Mother Reflects and Women in the Grove: Stories

The stories in Joan Corwin’s Hindsight dazzle in their range of imagination and bring dimension to what we might have thought of as ordinary lives before touched with her wisdom. To read them is to be changed. 

—Barbara Shoup, author of An American Tune and Looking for Jack Kerouac

Joan Corwin is a storyteller of extraordinary wisdom and empathy, devoted to rendering fully the lives of these remarkable characters—their complexities and frailties, their small kindnesses and terrible mistakes, and most of all, their resilience in the face of trauma, war, or even just the vagaries of aging. What a joy it’s been to read a debut book of such beauty and reach. 

  —Elizabeth Wetmore, New York Times bestselling author of Valentine

Joan Corwin’s Hindsight is a magnificent achievement. With great artistry and an unerring eye, Corwin weaves a richly hued and intricate tapestry of human experience in her collection of stories revolving around memory. This is an unforgettable collection you’ll want to keep close to your heart. Hindsight is a treasure.

—Barbara Froman, author of Shadows and Ghosts