Tarpaulin Sky Press
ISBN: 9780982541623
Fiction | 6"x8", 208 pp, pbk |May 2010
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A dying lover plans to become a zombie. An anxious woman can’t decide if she’s animal or human. A Jesus the size of a pencil lurks beneath the bed. Monsters, monsters, everywhere. But are they real or imagined? The stories in Recipes for Endangered Species hinge on this uncertainty. Lyrical, darkly funny, sometimes disturbing, this collection explores the secret desires that render people not only imperfect and dangerous, but also authentically human. Such ambiguity lies at the heart of Traci O Connor’s Recipes for Endangered Species, resulting in strangely beautiful stories obsessed with the unreasonable, the monstrous, and the extraordinary living among—and within—us.
These deftly written stories rear and buck against the confines of the traditional story collection, bursting out in images and recipes, galloping back and forth between traditional paragraphs and alternate forms. . . . Even though you’re moving fast enough that you could end up anywhere, Connor’s thought about every single word, every gesture, and she can turn each story on a dime. This is a marvelous debut.—Brian EvensonTraci O Connor’s subject matter is never easy. Her work cuts to the core, exposing cultural taboos and psychic turmoil. Her use of the fantastic emerges organically from her material, compelling the reader to face her own fears and prejudices, to embrace the monstrous within herself, to live with greater curiosity and compassion.—Melanie Rae Thon
About Traci O Connor
In addition to Recipes for Endangered Species, Connor has published fiction, non-fiction, and poetry in journals such as Barrow Street, Fourteen Hills, Gargoyle, Margie, Mid-American Review, LIT, and DIAGRAM. She holds an M.F.A. and a PhD from the University of Utah. A writer and assistant professor at Guilford College, she lives with her family in Greensboro, North Carolina.
