According to Associate Professor Paul Beatty, "Fierce, tender, and movingly midwestern, these are the stories one saves for special occasions; the third date, the fourth beer, the seventh inning stretch, and in the case of Ryan Elliott Smith a timeless first book. What a wonderfully bracing debut.”
Author Matt Gallagher also praises the collection, saying, "Ryan Elliott Smith is a storyteller of the old tradition—someone who charms, dismays, upends and thrills, not in spite of life's jagged complexities, but because of them. His debut collection Fly Over This brims with American yearning and human anguish, in a distinctive voice that'll mesmerize. I loved it."
Smith has published short stories in J Journal and the Chicago Quarterly Review, and was twice a top-25 finalist for Glimmer Train contests. He has studied at Story Studio and is the founding editor for the Broadsheet Journal, a Chicago literary magazine.