Lammy Award for Bisexual Fiction shortlist
At once playfully dark and slyly hopeful, Stories No One Hopes Are about Them explores convergences of power, privilege, and place. Characters who are ni de aqui虂, ni de alla虂鈥攏either from here nor there鈥攕traddle competing worlds, disrupt paradigms, and transition from objects of other people鈥檚 stories to active subjects and protagonists of their own. Narratives of humanity and environment entwine with nuanced themes of colonization, queerness, and evolution at the forefront. Big things happen in this collection. But it鈥檚 also a collection of small intimacies: misremembered names, chipped teeth, and private rituals; unexpected alliances and barely touched knees beneath uniform skirts; minutiae of the natural world; incidents that quietly, achingly, and delightfully transgress the familiar.
鈥In Bermudez鈥檚 captivating and mischievous debut collection, protagonists search for meaning and deal with other people鈥檚 entitlement. . . . Bermudez eloquently and powerfully writes of objectification and exploitation. This is a must-read.鈥浓赌Publishers Weekly, starred review
鈥Stories No One Hopes Are about Them is an absolutely brilliant collection, so of the moment formally and politically yet timeless in its pursuit of human contradiction. These stories move across geography, mode, and tone, linked not by common characters or shared locales but by the sly wit and stylistic virtuosity of their author. A. J. Bermudez鈥檚 debut left me in awe.鈥浓赌擜nthony Marra, judge, 澳洲幸运10开奖 Short Fiction Award
鈥淭he haunting stories collected in A. J. Bermudez鈥檚 Stories No One Hopes Are about Them comment on qualities of the Anthropocene and center apathy鈥檚 hand in violence. Volleying between the beauty of final moments and the thrill of crimes, these stories are not to be ignored.鈥浓赌Foreword Reviews
鈥淚n moments I almost hoped these wildly intelligent and wholly electric stories were about me. Was it recognition of those Bermuda Triangle-like moments when what we are running toward becomes what we are running from? Or pure admiration for the simultaneous swagger and patience of Bermudez鈥檚 turns of phrase? Maybe it鈥檚 the urge to be at the mercy of her formal range, from delightful lists to moments that gesture toward pure myth? It鈥檚 all of this, but mostly it鈥檚 how these heroes and fools still believe in metaphor as a site of human transformation, if not of our circumstances, then at least of our understanding of how we got from there to here.鈥浓赌擩enny Browne, author, Fellow Travelers, State of Texas poet laureate
鈥淎. J. Bermudez鈥檚 dazzling debut is a riveting collection of stories filled with memorable characters whose acerbic wit in the face of an absurd world haunts and delights. Each incredible story contains a world in miniature brought to the page with maximum impact, revealing a fragile surface that nonetheless is too tempting not to be shattered. There is an exhilarating breadth of characters, events, and places in these stories, showcasing a promising new writer who mixes the daily and the outlandish in a vision that is often wrenching and always surprising.鈥浓赌擬ichael Nye, author, All the Castles Burned
鈥淲颈迟丑&苍产蝉辫;Stories No One Hopes Are about Them, A. J. Bermudez explores what makes us us. Twenty brief tales poke at our assumptions of who we are and why we make our decisions. These are moments of living laid out over parties, plane tickets, rooms, and lives; they fold, unfold, and refold; paper airplanes cradling small insights. Pause in the frozen moments, breathe in the now of here and what comes next.鈥浓赌擠erek Beaulieu, director of literary arts, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
". . . sly and sharp-edged collection. . . . Bermudez deploys language with precision and panache (keep a dictionary handy) and is the kind of author whose work you want to devour."鈥The A. V. Club
2023 Lammy Award for Bisexual Fiction, shortlist
