SWANVILLE — Bruce Pratt’s latest publication, “The Trash Detail,” is a collection of short stories about characters who demonstrate a relentless humanity and redemptive courage that allows them to prosper in the face of long odds.

The stories were chosen from more than 40 previously published in magazines and journals in the U.S. and Canada.

In the title story, a young woman whose boyfriend in serving a short sentence for assault and lewd behavior, sits with binoculars in front of the window of the farmhouse where she is staying. She’s hoping to get a glimpse him on the work crew she knows will be picking up trash along the road in front of the house.

In “Salvage Harbour Redemption,” a young couple’s marriage is nearly sundered when both lose their jobs at a pulp mill and face leaving the home they dearly love for work in Pennsylvania.

In “Bone Moon,” a funeral director is drawn into his past when he recognizes a deceased woman as his brother’s prom date from many years ago, causing him to reflect on the turns his life has taken since then.

“Missing Person” chronicles the life of a Balkan refugee working two menial jobs to support his estranged wife and children while ever-haunted by ghosts from his past and by the disappearance of a woman with whom he had a casual sexual relationship on New Year’s Eve.

“The Trash Detail” is published by New Rivers Press and is available in paperback.

Pratt graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious studies in 1973, the University of Maine with a Master of Arts degree in English with a concentration in creative writing in 2001, and the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA in 2004 with a degree in creative writing.

He and his wife, Janet, live in Swanville.

For more information, go to spdbook.org.