"The Company of Heaven: Stories from Haiti," by Marilene Phipps-Kettlewell -- winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award -- will be available Oct. 1 from the University of Iowa Press. Phipps-Kettlewell’s stories transport readers to a lush, lyrical, flamboyant and spirit-filled Haiti where palm trees shine wet with moonlight and the ocean sparkles with thousands of golden eyes. Her characters address the deeper meanings of human existence, but they also dream of escape, whether from themselves, from family, from Vodou, from financial and cultural difficulties and from the politicians that create them, or from the country itself. Phipps-Kettlewell is a painter, poet and short story writer who has held fellowships at the Guggenheim Foundation, the Bunting Institute, the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research and the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University. Find out more about the book at the UI Press website.