The Girl & the Fox Pirate

Kate Gehan's debut collection of thirty-four stories is a wry, tender, and inventive exploration of the ways we manage relationships with our siblings, spouses, children, and even ourselves. Qualities of magic realism permeate her writing as characters navigate problems in a world where tumultuous emotions may literally burst into flight. In "Now They Would Behave" a family's discord manifests as an escaped dragon they must tame. In "It Grew to a Certain Size," a mother blames herself for her daughter's death and finds solace conversing with her talking pet pig. In "New Wavelengths" a woman harnesses unexpected natural power to seek revenge on her harasser. Gehan also lasers her insight to critique narrow definitions of female beauty, ultimately inviting us to envision a more glorious society.

Kate Gehan was born and raised in New York City and is a graduate of Haverford College and Emerson College's MFA program. Among many publications, her writing has appeared in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Split Lip Magazine, Literary Mama, People Holding, and as a winner of Midwestern Gothic's Flash Fiction Summer 2016 series. Kate read as a cast member of the 2014 Listen to Your Mother show and her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, The Best of the Net, and Wigleaf's Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions. She lives with her family in the Midwest.