Winston-Salem, NC: Press 53 (May 3, 2024)

Paperback. Signed.

New.

Garrett Ashley’s debut short story collection, Periphylla, and Other Deep Ocean Attractions, introduces a cast of characters both strange and strangely familiar: a father struggling to reconcile modern co-parenting with his past life as a yak, a brother and sister fighting to survive in an alligator-infested swamp, residents of a seaside town where the cadence of life and loss follows the heartbeat of the mythical Leviathan. Readers will find stories of reincarnation, zombification, and genetic modification—but most of all, a piercing self-awareness that invites us to laugh at the absurd while also reminding us, in all seriousness, that what some may call “fantasy” often tells the truest story.

Garrett Ashley lived most of his life in Mississippi and at the beginning of the pandemic finished his Ph.D. at the University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Writers. His work has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, The Normal School, Sonora Review, Analog SF&F, DIAGRAM, Reed Magazine, and Sequestrum, among other places. His story collection Before the Snakes Came was recently a finalist for the 2022 Moon City Press Short Fiction Award. He now lives in Alabama, where he teaches creative writing at Tuskegee University.