Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part 1: Critical essays -- Carp, mud, poison, and stench; or, Once Upon the Kalamazoo River / Jeffrey Insko -- Indigeneity in Once Upon a River / Heather A. Howard-Bobiwash -- The radical class politics of American Salvage / Charles Cunningham -- The cultural critique of American patriarchal capitalism in American Salvage / Alejandra Ortega -- Power tool mishaps: women and alcohol in "Playhouse" / Ellen Lansky -- Bonnie Jo Campbell's Millennium and the infrastructure of failure / Garth Sabo -- Mothers, daughters, and rape culture in Mothers, Tell Your Daughters / Laura Fine -- Up the road, down the river: the novels of Bonnie Jo Campbell side by side / Monica Friedman -- Part 2: Teaching essays -- Kalamazoo County: nurturing a community of readers / Marsha Meyer -- Entering the current: connecting high school readers with Once Upon a River / Becky Cooper -- Fiction friction: teaching chronic and acute conflict in Bonnie Jo Campbell's short fiction / RS Deeren -- The expatriate Midwesterner: teaching Bonnie Jo Campbell to second language writing students / Doug Sheldon -- American weirdos on parade: reader-response journals and "The Smallest Man in the World" / Jenny Robertson -- Appendix: Teaching activities.

"Michigan Salvage is the first scholarly collection on Michigan writer, Bonnie Jo Campbell, the author of two novels and three short story collections, including American Salvage (2009)"-- Provided by publisher.