Introducing: Strays Like Us
A collection of ten standalone short stories exploring what it means to grow up in America.
A collection of ten standalone short stories exploring what it means to grow up in America.
More About Strays Like Us
Short Story Collection / Literary Fiction / Realistic Fiction / Contemporary Fiction
From point of view to subject matter to setting, there’s a wide, wide degree of variance from one story in Strays Like Us to another. Some stories are dark. Others less so.
Some are more experimental while others follow a more traditional format.
Some, you’ll find, are set on the West Coast and span 50 pages. Others take place on the East Coast and span three.
The connective tissue that exists between the ten stories, then, is that each examines in one way or another what it means to be a kid in America. How one processes their experiences. The forces one finds themselves up against. What role “the uncontrollable” plays in all of it—our parents, our birthplaces—and not only how it is one goes about acquiring power and control, but what they do when they have it.
Two Fun Facts
The first drafts of the stories within Strays Like Us date back to 2009, when I was a sophomore in college. They’ve been sculpted over dozens of drafts in the decades since.
Strays Like Us was represented alongside And in the Dark They Are Born from 2014 to 2016 by an agent who one day up-and-quit. I’m not sure how many editors this agent approached, but one rejection they shared with me that I’ve hung onto came from an editor at Knopf: “And although the stories in STRAYS LIKE US worked in such a different, quotidian vein, they were very much of a piece with what I feel is Mr. [Francis’s] core set of concerns in his fiction—a sign of a sophisticated mind and style to be sure.”
The Stories
- Trisomy — read now
Author commentary for “Trisomy” — listen now
- Don’t Sit Still — read now
Author commentary for “Don’t Sit Still” — listen now
- Julio: Conqueror of the Crowbar — read now
Author commentary for “Julio: Conqueror of the Crowbar” — listen now
- Men of Action — read now
Author commentary for “Men of Action” — listen now
- Q&A — read now
Author commentary for “Q&A” — listen now
- Flask — read now
Author commentary for “Flask” — listen now
- Rasp — read now
Author commentary for “Rasp” — listen now
- Heel to Lung, Ear to Ear — read now
Author commentary for “Heel to Lung, Ear to Ear” — listen now
- Pass This Off As Love — read now
Author commentary for “Pass This Off As Love” — coming soon
- Dear Holly, be Right — coming soon
Author commentary for “Dear Holly, be Right” — coming soon
Shades of
If you enjoyed any of the following titles, chances are you’ll enjoy Strays Like Us too:
This is Not Your City by Caitlin Horrocks (2011; book)
Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson (2015; book)
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver (1981; book)
Other influences for this project include: the short works of Karen Russell, Jim Harrison, Alice Walker, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Colum McCann.
Very excited to read this collection, Garrett - I enjoyed your serial novel "And In the Dark They Are Born" so much I bought an e-copy to read straight through again!
The cover is so beautiful. :')