"Miracle Boy and Other Stories." By Pinckney Benedict. Press 53. 244 pages. $19.95.

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Pinckney Benedict is finally back, and that's good news for his many fans.

His new short story collection, "Miracle Boy and Other Stories," is his first new book in 14 years. That's way too long a wait for those of us who enjoy his highly imaginative, almost surreal storytelling.

Benedict burst onto the literary scene in 1987 with the publication of "Town Smokes," a collection of short stories set in the rural West Virginia of his birth. The book drew widespread -- and enthusiastic -- notice from reviewers. The New York Times called it "an often heart-stopping literary performance" and "a fearsome debut."

Heady praise for a writer then only 23 years old.

Benedict, the son of Republican politico Cleve Benedict, grew up on the family farm in Greenbrier County. At Princeton University, he was a student in a class taught by famed writer Joyce Carol Oates, who was one of the first to recognize his budding talent. Graduating from Princeton, he enrolled in the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.

In 1992, the B. Dalton bookstore chain selected a second collection of Benedict's stories, "The Wrecking Yard," for its Discover Great New Writers program. Reviewing the collection for the Sunday Gazette-Mail, columnist Jim Dent wryly noted that Benedict populated his stories with "a gallery of redneck types who do violence or have it done to them -- sometimes both."

For his part, Benedict has said he is drawn to West Virginia characters because of "the fierce independence that you find in pretty much the whole state."

Like most of his stories, his first (and thus far only) novel, "Dogs of God," published in 1994, was set in West Virginia. The novel featured a 12-fingered drug lord, a corrupt sheriff, a naive federal drug agent, a bunch of criminal drifters and no-goods, a small-time boxer, a religious hermit and lots of violence. The reviewers loved it. So did the readers, who quickly sent it into a second printing.

In 1996, Benedict left West Virginia to take a teaching job in Michigan. Since then he's held a number of teaching posts. He's currently a professor in the master of fine art program at Southern Illinois University and is co-founder of the annual Tinker Mountain Writers' Workshop at Hollins University, in Roanoke, Va.

But his teaching responsibilities haven't caused Benedict to stop writing. Far from it. He's kept up a steady stream of short stories that have been published in various magazines. Now, 14 of those stories have been published in a new collection.

The title story, "Miracle Boy," is an evocative look at school bullies at work. Their target is a young boy who has both feet severed in an accident on the family farm. His father rushes the boy and his feet to the hospital where surgeons reattach them. The newspapers christen him "Miracle Boy," and that name becomes a source of daily jeers from his schoolmates. First published in Esquire, this is as fine a story as you're going to read anywhere and one that's apt to prompt many readers to remember -- perhaps none too fondly -- their own school days.

"Buckeyes" has something of a similar tone. In it, a boy leads his companions to the neighborhood junkyard to see a car that carried the members of a traveling Ohio family to their deaths. The boy sees the bodies of the dead family still in the car. Or maybe he doesn't. Maybe he just imagines he sees them. That's the way it is when you read Benedict's tales. You never know for sure.

The next story introduces readers to the gritty world of chicken fighting and then, as you turn the pages, each story seems to get a bit stranger. Where else but in a Benedict story would you meet a dog that one day decides he wants to be a man and gradually becomes one?

Benedict's imaginings are not for every reader. But if you're willing to let your own imagination soar a bit, then this is a book for you.

Because Benedict's new collection is published by a small press, you may not find it at your favorite bookstore. But you can order it from Amazon.com or directly from the publisher at www.Press53.com.

Retired Huntington newspaperman James E. Casto frequently reviews books for the Sunday Gazette-Mail.