Published in 2002, Touch Wood is Joe Ashby Porter’s third collection of short stories. Set across a broad range of locations, from Key West to Alaska to the Mediterranean, these 10 tales also vary widely in structure and subject: The whimsical and humorous “A Man Wanted To Buy a Cat” chronicles a man’s fixation on purchasing a particular cat, while “Icehouse Burgess” stars a man who dons “invisible disguises” and ends up living under a bridge in France with a dog named Oh-oh. But whether traditionally or exotically structured, all the stories bear the mark of Porter’s dense, sometimes challenging language and wry humor. Intriguing, charming, and sometimes startling, the stories and characters that populate Touch Wood make for memorable and thought-provoking reading.

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Blurbs from the book cover

Card catalog entry from the Library of Congress

Publisher’s information page from Turtle Point Press

Amazon.com information page

Barnes and Noble information page

Reviews:
• Austin Chronicle, 1/24/03
• Duke Magazine, March/April 2003
• Review of Contemporary Fiction

Against Despair: A Set of Approaches Toward an Initial Critical Appreciation of the Fictions of Joe Ashby Porter—a critical essay by James Tierney

About the “touch wood” superstition from CSICOP’s Superstition Bash

Joe Ashby Porter
1942-

Joseph A. Porter/Joe Ashby Porter—a “joint interview” with the fiction writer and his Shakespearean scholar alter ego, from Duke University

Other profiles:
• A South Coast Sabbatical from the Standard-Times of Massachusetts
• Duke faculty directory
• KYLIT
• Ploughshares

Writers in Wonderland, an interview from the Duke Chronicle by Jonas Blank

List of Porter’s publications

Review excerpts for Resident Aliens

Writings by Porter:
• Multiple Identities, an article on his two careers
• Manatee, a short story from The Near Future