Description

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"What magic, what beauty there is in these pages."--John Freeman, author of Wind, Trees

In this adventurous debut lurk stories that are deep, lush, and full of wonder. While camping in the Kalahari Desert, a couple grows attached to a starving lion on the cusp of death; meanwhile, just north of the Smokies, a young boy is held captive by a dangerous old man who hunts dogs for sport; and off the Hawaiian coast, lovers kayak into the ocean to observe a tiger shark, only to find themselves in treacherous waters. The characters in these stories are headstrong and complex, and the prose is buoyant, rhythmic, and fiercely knowing. Nights from This Galaxy captures the spirit of a wild and wonderful planet, while acknowledging our shared fragility and the imminent grief that binds us all.

About the Author

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Wil Weitzel received a PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University and an MFA in Fiction Writing from New York University Writers Workshop in Paris. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Conjunctions, Crazyhorse, EPOCH, Kenyon Review, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and Prairie Schooner, among others. He received a New York City Emerging Writers Fellowship at the Center for Fiction and won the Washington Square Review Flash Fiction Award. His fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and been a finalist for the American Short Fiction Halifax Ranch Prize. His creative nonfiction was recognized as notable in The Best American Essays, and he is currently at work on a novel focused on the natural world and connecting with other species.