Meissner’s literary debut, in 1994, was Hitting into the Wind, an acclaimed collection of thirty baseball stories. He’s since gone on to write poetry (American Compass was published in 2004) and now another story collection, The Road to Cosmos. These portraits of “regular” individuals include, as a recurring figure, a man named Skip, who is obsessed with deciphering the mysteries of his own youth, and his father. At their best they capture quiet, potent moments that resonate with universality, and on occasion they shine with the kind of aesthetic Meissner has cultivated in his poetry. “The Rescue,” in particular, reads like a prose poem focused on the image of ice on a river in a series of Skip’s musings. 1011 Washington Ave. S., Suite 200, Minneapolis; 612-215-2575; www.loft.org
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