Vulture Gold

Micah Dean Hicks is the author of the novel Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones and the story collection Electricity and Other Dreams. His writing has appeared in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, the New York Times, Lightspeed, Nightmare, and Gulf Coast. He teaches creative writing as an assistant professor of English at the University of South Florida.

"Built upon the bones of fairy tales, legends, and ghost stories, this dark and lush collection offers up a fresh exploration of the human condition through the lens of the fantastic."—A.C. Wise, author of Ballad of the Bone Road"These stories, in the deft hand of Micah Dean Hicks, combine the grit of rural living with the soaring speculation of the fabulous. Writing in the rich vein of greats like Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, and Kelly Link, Hicks grants us entrée into complex ruminations on poverty and well-being, queerness, gender, and all of the bloody, beating moments that shape the human heart."—Joe Baumann, author of Tell Me"Each of Micah Dean Hicks's short stories is a thin slice of heart perfectly preserved in prose, so that this collection is like a beautifully arranged charcuterie tray of the human experience. You won't know whether to savor each beautiful and insightful morsel or to devour them all in a blaze of feeling. Compelling, powerful, unsettling, and gorgeous—this is must-read fiction from a major talent."—Wendy N. Wagner, author of Girl in the Creek and The Deer Kings

• 1. The Bone Oven2. The Carpenter and the Beast of Teeth3. A Ceremony of Beasts4. Flight of the Crow Boys5. Song Beneath the City6. The Deer Boy7. Ghost Jeep8. Church of Birds9. Fatherly10. The Wonder Broker11. The Listening Tree12. Wolf Coat Mine13. Rabbit Trap14. Saint Josiah the Loveless15. Vulture Gold16. AureliaAcknowledgments