Upright Beasts: Stories

“Dark, surreal, and imaginative, Lincoln Michel’s short story collection Upright Beasts is full of surprises at every turn.” —BuzzFeed

Children go to school long after all the teachers have disappeared, a man manages an apartment complex of attempted suicides, and a couple navigates their relationship in the midst of a zombie attack. In these short stories, we are the upright beasts, doing battle with our darker, weirder impulses as the world collapses around us.

“The world presented in Michel’s admirable debut collection is similar to our own, yet twisted just enough to feel strange . . . Michel frequently knocks his brief bursts of prose out of the park.” —Publishers Weekly

“[R]emarkable . . . A strong debut.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Deadpan and life affirming, the stories in this genre-bending debut veer from an apartment complex for the suicidal to a ghostly artists’ colony to the innards of wild things.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“Michel’s writing is both approachable and inspiring. You read [these stories], and you want to write them.” —Lawnchair Boys