Genre-bending stories of the cosmos and the worlds within our own skin

Blending fairy tale and science fiction with the otherworldliness of adolescence, A Preponderance of Starry Beings is a collection for anyone preoccupied with looking skyward. These stories probe the experience of coming of age on the outskirts of the universe, whether that be a small Midwestern town or a distant galaxy, and of weighing earthly obligations against the vast promises of space.

In a sleepy Ohio neighborhood, two girls seek refuge from their homophobic schoolmates in an antiques shop filled with Star Trek memorabilia. On a generation spaceship, children revolt against their parents’ plans to colonize a distant world. Deep in the Florida Everglades, seven sisters must protect their otherworldly mythology when two men arrive to fix the family automobile.

A Preponderance of Starry Beings invites us into a mundane and whimsical world of night islands, small towns, and faith lost and found, where a safe landing matters less than taking the leap.

SAMANTHA EDMONDS is the author of the chapbooks The Space Poet and Pretty to Think So. Her work appears in the New York Times, Fourth Genre, Ninth Letter, Mississippi Review, and The Rumpus, among others. She is an assistant professor in the creative writing program at Berry College and lives in Rome, Georgia.