Not The Same River

These stories involve ordinary people confronting extraordinary circumstances. A paperboy's favor for an elderly man on his route faces him with a profound ethical dilemma. A woman cannot decide whether to marry a neighbor who witnessed her husband's tragic fall from the neighbor’s roof.

The central theme these characters face is timeless: Do we shape the future, or does it shape us? On a mountaintop encounter, a man meets a mysterious stranger and must decide whether to follow the stranger's guidance. A woman hires a male nurse's aide for her mother with dementia, forcing the woman to face the complexities and contradictions of his caregiving.

The stories are set in diverse places, from the vibrant streets of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s to the serene landscapes of the Scottish Highlands. Other tales unfold on an Iowa farm struck by a tornado and within a museum teetering on the brink of closure on New York City's Madison Avenue.

W. A. Polf (William) is a native Californian who has spent most of his adult life in San Francisco and New York City. He holds a BA from San Francisco State University and a PhD in American history from Syracuse University. He worked for the New York State American Revolution Bicentennial Commission and the Speaker of the New York State legislature. He was an executive at Columbia University and spent thirty-five years in the Columbia University – Presbyterian Hospital system in New York City. He retired as a Senior Vice President at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. He lives in Pittsboro, North Carolina, with his wife Robin Eisner, an artist and retired journalist.

His stories have appeared in various publications. He has been a finalist or semi-finalist in several short story competitions. In 2018, he won second place in North Carolina’s Doris Betts Short Fiction competition, awarded by the North Carolina Writer’s Network. His story was published by the North Carolina Literary Review Online and was nominated for a Pushcart and for The Best Short Stories Online. The editors of the New Yorker wrote that “there is much to admire” in one of his stories. He published his first book of short stories, Magical Ballyglass and Other Stories, in 2012.