Perhaps every adult experiences a moment when the gulf between childhood dreams and present reality is glaringly evident. No less a writer than Turgenev captured the anguish of having to ask what we could have done with all the time that a human life encompasses. But then again, those childhood dreams hardly reflected our mature judgment. Imagine if we could step outside of time and look at the present moment with both idealism and wisdom. The reality might be shocking and horrifying, but it could still make a pretty good story. On the heels of his brilliant collection of short fiction, The Uprooted and Other Stories (2018), Michael Washburn’s new collection presents a vision that is hilarious and dark, bracing and terrifying. The daring, the adventurous, the hopeless, and the outcast people these tales. Here are failed geniuses and misanthropic extroverts. Here are individuals poised at a moment of desperate and exhilarating uncertainty. These are stories to which you will return again and again, even and especially when there are more important things you should be doing. You hold in your hands the latest offering of short stories from a unique American voice.

Michael Washburn is a Brooklyn-based writer and journalist. His short stories have appeared in numerous journals and magazines including Green Hills Literary Lantern, Rosebud, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Weird Fiction Review, New Orphic Review, Stand, Still Point Arts Quarterly, Lakeview Journal, Black Fox Literary Magazine, Bryant Literary Journal, Meat for Tea, Marathon Literary Review, Prick of the Spindle, and other publications. Michael is the author of an acclaimed cover story in the Philadelphia City Paper, entitled Home and Abroad. He is the author of a previous short fiction collection, Scenes fromthe Catastrophe (2016).