Mary Kuryla is the author of Freak Weather Stories (University of Massachusetts Press, 2017), which won the Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction. Her stories have been awarded a Pushcart Prize and the Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Prize, and have appeared in Epoch, Shenandoah, AGNI, Denver Quarterly, Witness, and elsewhere. “How to Blow Up a Beaver Lodge” is a story from Kuryla’s work in progress, The Onawayans, a novel-in-documents based on events recorded by Kuryla’s stepfather. (updated 9/2019)