Jim Powell is the founder of the Indiana Writers Center, a nonprofit organization that has supported Indiana writers for forty years. Among the characters you’ll find in his collection of nineteen stories are a young woman who’s under the thrall of a former Nazi, a man who’s shepherding his elderly mother through Alzheimer’s Disease, a child used as a pawn by his mother, and a writer who connects with an old friend who will never change. The settings range from Indianapolis to Vienna, Krakow, Puerto Vallarta, and beyond—but no matter its setting, each story is filtered through the lens of a writer who knows who he is and where he’s from. Powell’s stories are intense, even disturbing at times. But they are always true. Each one reflects the wisdom and generosity of a life lived, a witness to the vast complexity of the human condition.
“Jim Powell’s book of stories, Only Witness, bears insightful and lyrical witness to the everyday comedy and tragedy of our time, with an admirably authentic Hoosier flavor. Powell joins the great tradition of Nicholson, Tarkington and Vonnegut.”