Small Beer Press

A dazzling, postmodern debut collection of pulp and surreal fictions: a writer of alternate histories defends his patron’s zeppelin against assassins and pirates; a woman transforms into hundreds of gumballs; an emancipated children’s collective goes house hunting.

An ex-con finds himself falling, once more, under a seductive, amoral woman's spell. A hidden door in a summer house leads to a land of plenty. An inventor's life converges with the pulp fiction he reads. In "Pride and Prometheus," the Bennett sisters encounter Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. And, in his acclaimed and award-winning Lunar Quartet, Kessel explores the gender dynamics, politics, and long-term sustainability of a matriarchal lunar colony. This astonishing collection ranges from science fiction to the surreal while intersecting with Frank L. Baum's Oz and the characters of Flannery O'Connor, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen. By turns satirical, horrific, funny, and generous, these stories showcase the manifold gifts of a modern-day master.

A debut collection and finalist for the Story Prize. Maureen F. McHugh is an expert craftswoman who brings her clear-eyed vision (and empathy) to the relationships at the heart of our lives. Her stories are relevant, insightful, and beautifully written: She uses her deceptively simple prose to illuminate the unexpected chasms that open between generations.

This first collection by award-winning author Kelly Link, takes fairy tales and cautionary tales, dictators and extraterrestrials, amnesiacs and honeymooners, revenants and readers alike, on a voyage into new, strange, and wonderful territory. The girl detective must go to the underworld to solve the case of the tap-dancing bank robbers. A librarian falls in love with a girl whose father collects artificial noses. A dead man posts letters home to his estranged wife. Two women named Louise begin a series of consecutive love affairs with a string of cellists. A newly married couple become participants in an apocalyptic beauty pageant. Sexy blond aliens invade New York City. A young girl learns how to make herself disappear.

These eleven extraordinary stories are quirky, spooky, and smart. They all have happy endings. Every story contains a secret prize. Each story was written especially for you.

Stories from Stranger Things Happen have won the Nebula, Tiptree, and World Fantasy Award. Stranger Things Happen was a Salon Book of the Year, one of the Village Voice's 25 Favorite Books of 2001, and was nominated for the Firecracker Alternative Book Award.