" Drift and Swerve is an extraordinary collection-fourteen feverish stories propelled by Samuel Ligon's vigorous, perfect prose. Darkly funny and surprisingly moving, these tales of collision and escape feature unforgettable characters, like Nikki, who careens through the book's hard America with a ferocious, incurable case of hope." --Jess Walter "Samuel Ligon's writing does not drift and swerve, but remains ruthlessly clear-eyed and disciplined even as it depicts characters who find themselves at odds with grace. His worlds as rendered in this collection are grim, fascinating, devastating and, at times, hilarious. Ligon has an unerring instinct for human fallibility, for connections longed for and connections missed, for the stories we tell ourselves to survive." --Aurelie Sheehan.