Second Printing for Families Among Us!

I'm very happy to announce that in addition to being a Small Press Bestseller when it debuted, my chapbook of six short tales, Families Among Us, sold out of its original print run and is now in its second printing! Winner of the Black River Chapbook Competition, I hope you'll give this little collection a look and get a copy for yourself and/or as a gift for the person in your life who loves to read. You can order the book here, which will be giving future you a gift when it arrives via post. Stories in this book were adapted for broadcast on NPR, published by Tin House, and anthologized in The Best Small Fictions 2015.

And here are some awfully kinds words about the book:

Each of the stories in Blake Kimzey’s astonishing chapbook Families Among Us are intricate, beautifully written universes unto themselves. These stories blur the lines between what is real and what is possible yet they are also intimate and familiar because they are stories about people and connection and the very human desire to be a part of something greater than ourselves. —Roxane Gay, Author of An Untamed State and Bad Feminist

These stories are like tiny portholes into worlds teeming with rich, surprising life. Blake Kimzey is a master miniaturist. —Ramona Ausubel, author of No One is Here Except All of Us and A Guide to Being Born

Blake Kimzey has given us all the pleasures our imagination can bear, six stories to savor slowly, to break our hearts and then mend them. I wanted more of these good things. —Kyle Minor, author of Praying Drunk and In the Devil's Territory

These imagined worlds conjure not some other space but the forgotten weirdness of the world we know, revealed here in all its wondrous everyday magic. —Matt Bell, author of Scrapper and In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods

Following the likes of Orson Welles and his radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds, Rod Serling and the television series The Twilight Zone, and John Carpenter and his film The Thing, Blake Kimzey and his chapbook collection of short stories Families Among Us delve deep into different, yet equally mysterious phenomena. Kimzey’s collection proposes that we need look no further than our own homes and communities for the source of the curious and the bizarre, and it is through these otherworldly, yet earthly, creations that we discover that which binds us all. -Colorado Review, Center for Literary Publishing

Without ever resorting to one-to-one symbolic resonances, or hyperbolic strangeness, these stories strike a balance that leaves me feeling both recognized, and impossibly far from home. I also end up wondering how Kimzey walks this line so well.  -Green Mountains Review

An entire universe lives within these forty pages, spun into existence with the sincere cadence of an ancient origin story. For readers, this chapbook is a welcome pause from realism, a chance to give in to and live briefly in the fantastical. -PANK

Lovely and Majestic. Kimzey has fashioned six allegories about the inevitability of change, people trying to love what is different from themselves, and the hardship and heartbreak that comes with being part of a family. -The Small Press Book Review

Families Among Us is a daring book. As with Kafka’s work, after living in these stories for a couple days, they get even stranger, and new layers emerge. -Fiction Southeast

Thank you for supporting my writing! Get your copy here. 

Families Among Us: Great Review at PANK

Thank you to Thomas Michael Duncan and PANK for this great review of my chapbook, Families Among Us. Here is a short excerpt:

When a writer tells vibrant stories that bleed into the margins, and when a sharp design meets fitting, fascinating artwork, the result is too great to ignore. In other words, the result is Families Among Us. An entire universe lives within these forty pages, spun into existence with the sincere cadence of an ancient origin story. For readers, this chapbook is a welcome pause from realism, a chance to give in to and live briefly in the fantastical.

You can read the rest of the review here. And if you'd like to buy a copy of Families Among Us, you can do so here. Thanks for reading!

Families Among Us - Available to Order

Black Lawrence Press is publishing my chapbook of six short tales, Families Among Us, in mid-September. Winner of the 2013 Black River Chapbook Competition, it is now available to order for the low-low price of $8.95.

I hope you'll give this little collection a look and get a copy for yourself and/or as a gift for the person in your life who loves to read. You can order the book here, which will be giving future you a gift when it arrives via post later this month.

And here are some awfully kinds words about the book:

These stories are like tiny portholes into worlds teeming with rich, surprising life. Blake Kimzey is a master miniaturist. —Ramona Ausubel, author of No One is Here Except All of Us and A Guide to Being Born

Each of the stories in Blake Kimzey’s astonishing chapbook Families Among Us are intricate, beautifully written universes unto themselves. These stories blur the lines between what is real and what is possible yet they are also intimate and familiar because they are stories about people and connection and the very human desire to be a part of something greater than ourselves. —Roxane Gay, Author of An Untamed State and Bad Feminist

Blake Kimzey has given us all the pleasures our imagination can bear, six stories to savor slowly, to break our hearts and then mend them. I wanted more of these good things. —Kyle Minor, author of Praying Drunk and In the Devil's Territory

In Families Among Us, Blake Kimzey’s inventive prose summons six weird worlds of the imagination—but more than anything else, these imagined worlds conjure not some other space but the forgotten weirdness of the world we know, revealed here in all its wondrous everyday magic. —Matt Bell, author of In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods

Thank you for supporting my writing!

New Story in Fall Issue of Dark Sky Magazine

According to HTMLGIANT, if you'd like to read about a family crawling naked from the sea clutching plastic suitcases, then my story "A Family Among Us" is for you. It is featured in the fall issue of Dark Sky Magazine.

Big thanks to Dark Sky Magazine editors Kevin M. Murphy, Brian Allen Carr, Christy Crutchfield, and Gabe Durham for publishing this piece.

You can read "A Family Among Us" here. And please check out more new fiction in this issue from Katie Jean Shinkle, Corey Eastwood, Jason Larson, Katherine V. Seger, and Joseph Musso. Issue 14 also has a great selection of poetry, art, reviews, and all around cool recommendations from the Dark Sky staff. Check it out!

"A Family Among Us" is part of a new collection I am writing. "Up and Away" is also part of this collection, and was published in September by PANK. You can read "Up and Away" here.

An Interview with PANK

My story "Up and Away" was featured in the September issue of PANK Magazine, and now I've got an author interview up at their blog.

If you want to know what I think about wandering, unsteadiness and embarrassing home videos, look no further. You can read my interview here. And you can read "Up and Away" here. Thanks to J. Bradley for the thoughtful questions!

New Story in September issue of PANK

A million thanks to PANK editors M. Bartley Seigel and Roxane Gay for publishing my story "Up and Away" in the September issue of PANK. You can read "Up and Away" here and listen to me reading the story here.

I've been submitting my work to PANK for a few years now and am thrilled beyond belief to be featured in their magazine. I'm really proud of "Up and Away" and really hope you enjoy it. The September issue is filled with great work by Stefanie Freele, Andrew Brininstool, Wendy Xu, Tessa Mellas, Thomas Patrick Levy, Aimee Vitrak, and many more talented authors.

So take PANK for a test drive, starting with "Up and Away".