Amber Sparks Debuts Her Collection Of Unearthly Stories
By Maggie Hellwig in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 20, 2012 7:00PM
May We Shed These Human Bodies is Sparks' first book, but the Washington, DC author has contributed her work to other collections of fiction, including the chapbook Shut Up/Look Pretty and the anthology Gravity Dancers. Her short fiction has been published in so many different journals that it's intimidating to even a more seasoned author's repertoire.
We certainly hope that Human Bodies is not the last book that Sparks produces in her literary career. The collection of 30 short stories ranges from flash fiction to slightly lengthier pieces. The tone is spooky and ethereal; Publishers Weekly refers to the stories as "modern fables in which epiphanies replace moral lessons and tales unfold with Grimm-like wickedness." The titles, such as "The Ghosts Eat More Air," or, "Death and the People," shroud the stories with a supernatural cloak, and their mystery is heightened by their brevity.
Sparks is not the only author to be joining the reading and signing on Saturday. Local authors Franki Elliot, author of Piano Rats, Chris Bower, Lindsay Hunter, James Tadd Adcox, Jac Jemc, and several others shall be reading their short pieces which closely pertain to the tone of Human Bodies.
Saturday, Sept. 22 at Cole's Bar, 2338 N. Milwaukee, 7-10 p.m., FREE!