Description:
Periphylla, and Other Deep Ocean Attractions introduces a cast of characters both strange and strangely familiar. . . .while also reminding us that what some may call "fantasy" often tells the truest story.
Brief description: 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.
Review Quotes:
Garrett Ashley has created a panorama of tales with Periphylla and Other Deep Ocean Attractions. This is a striking collection that shifts between worlds, from the creatures that inhabit the land and sea, to the two-legged humans who walk around troubled and confused, fighting to make sense of it all. These stories are a reminder that there is much beauty, and pain, in all creation. -Michael Farris Smith, author of Salvage This World and Desperation Road
A fever-hot exhalation of wonder. In these stories, aquariums hold leviathans, amoeba people burst through fake human skins, bruises ache from past lives, and the dead return as pigs. Heady, blistering, and tender as a wound. -Micah Dean Hicks, author of Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones