{{Short description|2021 short story collection}} {{Infobox book | image = Mad Prairie (Book Cover).jpeg | author = Kate McIntyre | publisher = University of Georgia Press | pub_date = 2021 | pages = 176 | isbn = 9780820360744 }}

'''''Mad Prairie''''' is a short story collection by Kate McIntyre, published in 2021 by the University of Georgia Press.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Mad Prairie |url=https://coloradoreview.colostate.edu/reviews/mad-prairie/ |access-date=2025-12-11 |website=Center for Literary Publishing |language=en-US}}</ref> It contains seven short stories and a novella, focused on McIntyre's home state of Kansas.<ref name=":0" /> The stories are linked by their shared setting and by relationships between the characters, which are sometimes explained belatedly as a surprise reveal.<ref name=":0" />

Kansas is portrayed as a repressive place to live.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=SPLIT ROCK REVIEW — Review of Mad Prairie — SHORELINE |url=https://www.splitrockreview.org/mad-prairie |access-date=2025-12-11 |website=SPLIT ROCK REVIEW |language=en-US}}</ref> Anuradha Prasad describes McIntyre's Kansas as "a dead end to dreams—stunted and stifling, its landscape uninspiring."<ref name=":1" /> According to Patrick Carey writing for the ''Colorado Review'', "ultra-traditional gender and sex relations" are "fundamental" to the collection's depiction of Kansas as "a black hole that binds together people" who know they should actually leave their current situation.<ref name=":0" /> In an interview, McIntyre stated that she did not want the novel to be read as solely a criticism of Kansas, expressing affection for Kansans and for the Kansas landscape.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=2021-11-07 |title=Kate McIntyre's gothic stories rise from isolated ranch house settings |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-kate-mcintyres-gothic/186614646/ |access-date=2025-12-11 |work=The Boston Globe |pages=N10}}</ref>

Many of the stories focus on violence, especially in the novella.<ref name=":0" /> McIntyre described "the unpredictability of male anger" as a core theme, and said she wanted to show how it can be mingled with love and humour.<ref name=":2" /> The violence of the stories exists in parallel with mundane events that Carey describes as "the endless dopiness of people going through everyday life".<ref name=":0" /> Prasad describes the characters as "a parade of passive, hapless, and sinister characters" who "tread wildly absurd and terrifying paths".<ref name=":1" /> Carey compares McIntyre to both Shirley Jackson (for the Gothic horror of the violent events) and to George Saunders (for the humorous "dopey couples").<ref name=":0" />

The collection won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction in 2020, which led to its publication by the University of Georgia Press the following year.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Demuth |first=Gary |title=Salina native wins Flannery O'Connor Award |url=https://www.salina.com/story/entertainment/2020/10/29/salina-native-wins-flannery-orsquoconnor-award/42913055/ |access-date=2025-12-11 |website=Salina Journal |language=en-US}}</ref> It was also selected as a 2022 Kansas Notable Book, chosen by the Kansas Center for the Book at the State Library of Kansas,<ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-06-16 |title=2022 Kansas Notable Books |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/frankfort-area-news-2022-kansas-notable/186614700/ |access-date=2025-12-11 |work=Frankfort Area News |pages=5}}</ref> and longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for a debut short-story collection.<ref>{{cite web |title=Announcing the 2022 PEN America Literary Awards Longlists |url=https://pen.org/2022-pen-america-longlists/ |website=PEN America |access-date=11 December 2025 |date=15 December 2021}}</ref>

== Author == Kate McIntyre was raised in Salina, Kansas.<ref name=":2" /> Her mother was the director of the Salina Education Foundation.<ref name=":3" /> McIntyre began writing in elementary school.<ref name=":2" /> She graduated from Salina Central High School in 2000,<ref name=":3" /> and later attended Harvard University.<ref name=":2" /> As of 2025, she is an associate professor of creative writing at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About |url=https://www.katemcintyrewriting.com/about |access-date=2025-12-11 |website=Kate McIntyre |language=en-US}}</ref> There, she edits the literary journal ''The Worcester Review''.<ref name=":3" />

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Category:Books about Kansas Category:2021 short story collections Category:American short story collections Category:English-language short story collections