The way the sky was now, a 2013 fiction chapbook by Ryder Collins

Image: Eben A. Kling

Winner of the 2013 Heavy Feather Chapbook Award
Judge Amber Sparks, author of The Unfinished World and Other Stories:

“‘And so it came to be. & so it came to be that Big Mama squatted and borned us. & we came out squalling and waving sticks.’ This is the way we’re launched into one of the pieces in The way the sky was now, and it’s indicative of the fierce, funny, wild energy that runs through this chapbook full of post-apocalyptic snapshots. I was reminded a little of George Saunders, a little of Lindsay Hunter, but this is something totally new, something real and raw—a really promising voice in this little/big tome. Ryder Collins is adept at so many voices, and especially loves the outsiders. There’s something intensely musical about the collection as well, that gives it at times a folkloric quality that works well in painting a world after the world had ended. In the end, the best compliment I can give is that the book just works—and it draws you in and draws you in, so close that to get burned by these searing pages.”

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