Stephen Coyne, professor of English at Morningside College, recently had his book, “It Turns Out Like This,” published after winning an annual competition sponsored by New Rivers Press.

Stephen Coyne, professor of English at Morningside College, recently had his book, “It Turns Out Like This,” published after winning an annual competition sponsored by New Rivers Press.

For more than 35 years, the Many Voices Project has sought the best full-length manuscripts from new and emerging writers. Coyne has had many poems and short stories published throughout his career, but this is his first book.

“It Turns Out Like This” is the life story of Stu Jakes, told in snapshots from his childhood as a folk healer to his later years living on a crabbing boat and every hard turn in between.

A washed up crabber, Jakes does his best to turn a cold eye on life, but a meth-addicted come-on artist lures him back into the world. Her desperate need to find the speed that makes her feel like she is enough pulls Jakes back into his own struggles. Jakes helps her snatch her daughter from an abusive father and flee up river, back toward his old waters. There, Jakes rediscovers the lost boy he still is and finds what he needs to be a grandfather.

Most of the chapters in the book were originally written as short stories.

“Coyne’s stories are subtle, heartbreaking and tightly crafted,” said Patrick Hicks, associate professor of English and writer-in-residence at Augustana University in Sioux Falls. “It comes as no surprise that many of them first appeared in such vital literary journals as North American Review, New England Review, The Southern Review and The Georgia Review. … One gets the sense that Coyne has worked on this book for many years, and that hard work is reflected in these braided narratives.”

Coyne joined the faculty at Morningside College in 1988. He teaches American literature and creative writing and serves as faculty adviser for Kiosk, the college’s literary magazine. He has received a number of writing awards, including the Roberts Writing Award, Heartland Fiction Prize and Prairie Schooner Readers’ Choice Award.

“It Turns Out Like This” can be purchased at the Morningside College Bookstore, at Barnes and Noble at Southern Hills Mall in Sioux City, or from Amazon.com.