Running with Buffalo — Michael Farrell

Joseph P. Cahan doesn't want much. The recent college grad wants to see his first published story en route to a writing career. He wants to pursue this path in his New York hometown, aside his Irish family and life-long friends who live for football, stout and the Stones. He wants to move on from a tumultuous Dylan-soundtracked romance that had to end. It's not much-but he wants it all. Unfortunately, in the nine months following his 2001 graduation, Cahan finds these seemingly simplistic desires not so easy to realize. Told through the voice of an idealistic Cahan, Running with Buffalo is about understanding a present that longs for the past, while perpetually trying to figure out an uncertain and frightening future. It's a humorous and heartfelt testimonial about life's fearsome complexities, unanticipated changes, and the simple truths that could quell the intensity of it all. It's about the uneven journey to find a place to call home. And for Cahan, it's about running with Buffalo.