Amber Sparks
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Amber Sparks

Anthologies & Short Stories Short Story Witty
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Amber Sparks is the author of the upcoming I DO NOT FORGIVE YOU: REVENGES and OTHER STORIES; THE UNFINISHED WORLD AND OTHER SHORT STORIES; MAY WE SHED THESE HUMAN BODIES; and is the co-author of the THE DESERT PLACES. She lives in Washington, DC with two beasts and two humans, and she lives online at www.ambernoellesparks.com or @ambernoelle on Twitter. Praise for THE UNFINISHED WORLD: “The images tumbling from Sparks’s mind in her extraordinary second story collection (following May We Shed These Human Bodies) are fantastical and sublime…. In present-day, historical, and fantasy settings, the author is assured; her spare but colorful prose takes the reader on journeys of longing and mystery, often into uncharted territory, all the while capturing setting and character in a few words…. [T]he breadth of her imagination never ceases to amaze.” — Publishers Weekly, Starred review “The strength of the collection is Sparks’ lush, lyrical writing, saturating the dark, death-filled stories with beauty…. Stylish and deeply imagined.” —Kirkus Reviews “In The Unfinished World and Other Stories, Amber Sparks is a master of the fantastic. Here are stories about fever librarians and brothers who are swans, time travelers and space janitors. With each story, Sparks defies the known world in absolutely thrilling ways.” (Roxane Gay, author of An Untamed State and Bad Feminist) “Amber Sparks is one of my favorite writers working today. Her stories are brutal beauties, guaranteed to explode your brain and steal your heart, and The Unfinished World and Other Stories is vintage Sparks: endlessly inventive, thrillingly imaginative, utterly assured. I loved this wild miracle of a collection.” (Laura van den Berg, author of Find Me) “Reading The Unfinished World and Other Stories is like being given the keys to the mysterious back rooms of a great museum: everywhere you look there is another wonder, strange and surprising and fashioned with admirable skill. Amber Sparks is a master curator―part historian, part scientist, all storyteller―and her curiosity is boundless and intoxicating, leading her time and again to stories that will intrigue and enchant any reader willing to be moved to amazement and joy.” (Matt Bell, author of Scrapper) “The stories of The Unfinished World are exciting in their invention and sharp in their insights―the collection a thrilling riff on history and pop culture, fairy tale and fantasy. Amber Sparks is as perversely entertaining as Margaret Atwood, her writing as lush as Angela Carter’s.” (Timothy Schaffert, author of The Swan Gondola) “Elegant and otherworldly, The Unfinished World (And Other Stories) is my favorite kind of magic trick. Sparks exhibits a genuine understanding of humanity while expertly rendering the longings of her varied population―from Lancelot to time travelers to the prettiest cashier at Safeway. I fell asleep by a river while reading and had a dream I could not remember when I woke in the gauze of late afternoon. The Unfinished World is the dream and the memory and the river. Shot through with jazz age sensibilities, welcoming weirdness and occasionally eschewing the laws of physics, this beautiful collection is (at times, literally) haunted by its characters. They haunted me, too.” (Marie-Helene Bertino, author of 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas) Praise for MAY WE SHED THESE HUMAN BODIES (Oct. 2012 from Curbside Splendor): Atlantic Wire called it the "best small press debut of 2012." Publisher's Weekly said it "swirls with a Tim Burton-like whimsy...modern fables in which epiphanies replace moral lessons and tales unfold with Grimm-like wickedness." Flavorwire named it one of their "one of their 10 "must-reads" for October 2012." Books on the Nightstand said: "I am absolutely loving May We Shed These Human Bodies by Amber Sparks, a collection that is perfect for fans of Karen Russell, Kevin Brockmeier and Aimee Bender." TNBCC's The Next Best Book Blog said that: "Her stories read swiftly, sting fiercely, and then retreat quickly to make room for the next. Each little world she creates breathes hard and fast and lingers with us long after we leave it behind." and over a dozen bloggers and literary magazines and websites named it one of the best books of 2012.
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