{"id":164,"date":"2021-12-07T10:47:51","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T15:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/?page_id=164"},"modified":"2026-02-09T17:24:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T22:24:02","slug":"mitko","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/novellas\/mitko\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitko"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size\">GARTH GREENWELL<br><br>2010 NOVELLA PRIZE SELECTED BY DAVID SCHLOSS<br>2011. ISBN-13: 978-1-4507-6214-4\/ISBN-10: 1-4507-6214-4<br>$15.00 <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/books\/mitko\/9781450762144\">Bookshop<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Mitko-Miami-University-Press-Fiction\/dp\/145076214X\">Amazon<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pathwaybookservice.com\/products\/mitko-miami-university-press-fiction\">Pathway<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>On an unseasonably warm autumn day, an American newly arrived in a foreign city pays a young man for sex. Over the next months, as what at first seems an uncomplicated transaction deepens into something more intricate and unnerving, his discovery of the geography and griefs of an unfamiliar country is accompanied by the unfolding of Mitko\u2019s own narrative, his private history of illness, exploitation, and want. The story of a desire that grows increasingly ambivalent, poised between submission, need, and resentment, Mitko is a powerful meditation on the chances of history and privilege, on mutual predation, and on our inability to know with any certainty the natures of others or our own fugitive selves.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size\">Reviews &amp; Such<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Kyle Minor includes&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;in a list of the &#8220;15 Hottest Affairs in Literature&#8221; at the&nbsp;<em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/kyle-minor\/15-hottest-affairs-in-lit_b_4653731.html\" target=\"_blank\">Huffington Post<\/a>.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Okla Elliott included&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;in his list of \u201cFive Short Fiction Books I Read and Liked a Lot in 2012\u201d in the December 27, 2012 edition of the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/heavyfeatherreview.com\/2012\/12\/27\/five-and-five-okla-elliotts-2012-list\/\" target=\"_blank\">Heavy Feather Review<\/a>. He also includes MU Press in his list of \u201cFive Literary Presses to Watch in 2013.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>For the second year in a row,&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;was mentioned in the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/bandofthebes.typepad.com\/bandofthebes\/2012\/11\/the-best-lgbt-books-of-2012.html#more\" target=\"_blank\">Band of Thebes \u201cbest of\u201d list<\/a>, this time twice. Rahul Mehta, whose book won the Lambda debut prize, writes \u201cGarth Greenwell\u2019s dark and poetic novella,&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>, devastated me.\u201d And from Paul Russell: \u201cGarth Greenwell\u2019s short novel&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>\u2014a wonderful debut, alive with complex sentences and complex lives.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/nouvellabooks.com\/novella-month\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nouvella<\/a>&nbsp;included&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;in its list of recommended novellas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Next Magazine<\/em>&nbsp;featured&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;in its&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nextmagazine.com\/content\/bulgaria-love\" target=\"_blank\">Outwords<\/a>&nbsp;column on May 9, 2012.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Lambda Literary Foundation nominated&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;for its<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.lambdaliterary.org\/foundation-updates\/03\/20\/24th-annual-lambda-literary-award-finalists-announced\/\" target=\"_blank\">&nbsp;24th Annual Lambda Literary Awards<\/a>, Gay Debut Fiction category.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.publishingtriangle.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Publishing Triangle<\/a>&nbsp;named&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;was a finalist for its Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction. The judges noted: \u201cIntoxicating and powerful, Garth Greenwell\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;is a journal of detail and desire, a haunting rumination of hope and passion. In this complex novella, Greenwell reminds us that elegant prose and a respect for literary tradition can occasionally lead to something utterly original.&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;is both dreamy and a dream.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Kate Munning reviewed&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theliteraryreview.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Literary Review<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;(Fall\/Winter 55.1). Download the pdf&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.orgs.miamioh.edu\/mupress\/downloads\/TLR_Mitko_review.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Poet Ilya Kaminsky praised&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;on the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pw.org\/content\/ilya_kaminsky_on_red_hen_press\" target=\"_blank\">Poets &amp; Writers blog<\/a>&nbsp;on January 9, 2012, and again on the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/wdsreviewofbooks.webdelsol.com\/Greenwell.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Web Del Sol Review of Books #7<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;was named as a \u201cbest book\u201d or \u201cfavorite read\u201d of 2011 by the following reviewers: David Pratt&nbsp;(<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.lambdaliterary.org\/features\/12\/25\/best-books-2011-authors-choice\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lambda Literary<\/a>), <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/matthewhittinger.com\/2011\/12\/favorite-books-read-in-2011\/\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew Hittinger<\/a>, Kyle Minor (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/bigother.com\/2011\/12\/13\/best-of-2011-part-1\/?mid=551\" target=\"_blank\">Big Other<\/a>), Richard Labonte (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.southfloridagaynews.com\/arts-and-entertainment\/book-reviews\/5161-book-marks-my-10-favorite-fiction-reads-of-2011.html\" target=\"_blank\">Book Marks<\/a>), and Peter Cameron (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/bandofthebes.typepad.com\/bandofthebes\/2011\/11\/the-best-lgbt-books-of-2011-1.html#more\" target=\"_blank\">Band of Thebes<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>David Pratt reviewed&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;on&nbsp;<em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.outinprint.net\/2011\/11\/03\/mitko--garth-greenwell-miami-university-press.aspx?ref=rss\" target=\"_blank\">Out in Print<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;on November 3, 2011.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Read the conversation with Garth on&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themigrantbookclub.com\/2011\/10\/mitko-conversation-with-author-garth.html\" target=\"_blank\">The Migrant Bookclub Blog<\/a>, posted on October 18, 2011.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Stephen Bottum reviewed&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;on his&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/bandofthebes.typepad.com\/bandofthebes\/2011\/09\/mitko-by-garth-greenwell.html\" target=\"_blank\">Band of Thebes blog<\/a>&nbsp;on September 20, 2011.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Shara Lessley of&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/therumpus.net\/2011\/09\/the-rumpus-interview-with-garth-greenwell-bel-canto-to-buglaria\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Rumpus<\/a>&nbsp;chatted with Garth on September 2, 2011.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Carole Giangrande reviewed&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;alongside&nbsp;<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.orgs.miamioh.edu\/mupress\/details\/chambers_old_whitaker_place.htm\">The Old Whitaker Place<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;on her blog,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/carolesbooktalk.wordpress.com\/2011\/07\/29\/men-alone-two-fine-debut-novellas\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Thoughtful Blogger<\/a>&nbsp;on July 29, 2011. Don&#8217;t feel like reading? Listen to her&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wordstogopodcast.com\/podcast-32\" target=\"_blank\">podcast<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.openlettersmonthly.com\/book-review-mitko\/\" target=\"_blank\">Open Letters Monthly<\/a>&nbsp;reviewed&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;in July, 2011.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/sofiaecho.com\/2011\/06\/17\/1107712_of-lgbt-life-and-literature#comments\" target=\"_blank\">The Sofia Echo<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;featured Garth and&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;June 17, 2011.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Read the May 19, 2011 \u201cAuthor Spotlight\u201d by Sean Lovelace on&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/htmlgiant.com\/author-spotlight\/suggested-pairings-garth-greenwell-and-harry-porter-and-the-bourbon-soaked-vanilla-beans-porter\/\" target=\"_blank\">HTMLGiant<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Kyle Minor caught up with Garth on&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/htmlgiant.com\/random\/catching-up-with-garth-greenwell\/\" target=\"_blank\">HTMLGiant<\/a>&nbsp;on May 29, 2011.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;Garth Greenwell displays a dazzling ability to negotiate the shadowy boundary between lust and longing.&nbsp;The story is thoroughly modern, but the elegance of his style, his devotion to his characters, and his Jamesian skill in parsing emotions give this narration a timeless quality. A splendid debut.<strong>\u2014Margot Livesey<\/strong>, author of&nbsp;<em>The House on Fortune Street<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;is a haunting and compelling meditation on erotic obsession, loneliness, and power. Garth Greenwell writes with the intensity and urgency of a poet, and his novella takes on the weight and impact of a much longer work of fiction.<strong>\u2014Stephen McCauley<\/strong>, author of&nbsp;<em>The Object of My Affection<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Garth Greenwell\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;is a work of enormous verbal energy in the service of a vision punishing and remorseless. An anatomy of desire and disappointment in a life \u201cpitched almost always beneath the pitch of poetry\u201d yet captured in language alert to every prospect of beauty, however compromised and fleeting.<strong>\u2014Robert Boyers<\/strong>, author of&nbsp;<em>The Dictator\u2019s Dictation<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In this lyrical and sophisticated exploration of tormented desire and romantic obsession, Garth Greenwell unfurls a story of love and life in a faraway place that is finely observed and deeply felt. &nbsp;His voice is elegant and original; his prose graceful, seductive and full of yearning.<strong>\u2014David Francis<\/strong>, author of&nbsp;<em>Stray Dog Winter<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Mitko<\/em>&nbsp;is a novella of astonishing force and poignance, and Garth Greenwell\u2019s Sofia, Bulgaria, brings to mind Christopher Isherwood\u2019s Berlin or the Saigon of Marguerite Duras.<strong>\u2014Honor Moore<\/strong>, author of&nbsp;<em>The Bishop\u2019s Daughter<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size\">About the Author<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Garth Greenwell is the author of <em>What Belongs to You<\/em>, which won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for six other awards, including the PEN\/Faulkner Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em>&nbsp;Book Prize. His new book of fiction, <em>Cleanness<\/em>, was published in January 2020. A finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, it was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, the L.D. and LaVerne Harrell Clark Fiction Prize, and France\u2019s Prix Sade (Deuxi\u00e8me s\u00e9lection). Greenwell is also the co-editor, with R.O. Kwon, of the anthology KINK, which appeared in February 2021. The recipient of honors including a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2021 Vursell Award for prose style from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Greenwell lives in Iowa City with his partner, the poet Luis Mu\u00f1oz.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size\">About the Cover<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cover image is Plate 347 in Eadweard Muybridge\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Animal Locomotion<\/em>&nbsp;series, completed between 1884 and 1886. Miami University Press thanks the University of Pennsylvania Library for providing a digital copy of the image for the cover.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/greenwell_mitko-1.jpg\" alt=\"Mitko cover\" class=\"wp-image-165\" style=\"width:450px;height:720px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/greenwell_mitko-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/greenwell_mitko-1-188x300.jpg 188w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2022\/03\/greenwell-garth-1-1024x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"Garth Greenwell\" class=\"wp-image-871\" style=\"width:450px;height:450px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2022\/03\/greenwell-garth-1-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2022\/03\/greenwell-garth-1-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2022\/03\/greenwell-garth-1-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2022\/03\/greenwell-garth-1-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2022\/03\/greenwell-garth-1-1536x1536.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2022\/03\/greenwell-garth-1-2048x2048.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2022\/03\/greenwell-garth-1-600x600.jpeg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GARTH GREENWELL 2010 NOVELLA PRIZE SELECTED BY DAVID SCHLOSS2011. ISBN-13: 978-1-4507-6214-4\/ISBN-10: 1-4507-6214-4$15.00 Bookshop | Amazon | Pathway On an unseasonably warm autumn day, an American newly arrived in a foreign city pays a young man for sex. Over the next months, as what at first seems an uncomplicated transaction deepens into something more intricate and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":995,"featured_media":0,"parent":23,"menu_order":14,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-164","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/995"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/164\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}