Jeff Maehre

As If It's Real Jeff Maehre

The connected stories in As if It's Real explore a few precarious moments in the life of a struggling poker player from Detroit. In "Expanding and Myopic," Elliot questions his role in an uncertain relationship with his troubled girlfriend, while believing the universe has mistaken him for someone else. "Action" chronicles Elliot's mother trying to step into the skin of an online poker player; and "Kicking" interrogates loneliness at its various stages, with Elliot criss-crossing the nation and Elizabeth recovering from addiction. The stories portray characters in an earnest yet guarded quest to find out what it is to be human, negotiating the boundaries between their inner worlds and the world beyond. Related stories appeared in Backbone Mountain Review and pitheadchapel.com; Maehre's work has appeared in Story, Cutbank, The Northwest Review, and Phoebe.