Christopher Barzak's Blog

Yesterday was the official release date for my novella, A Voice Calling. It’s a story about a haunted house that does very terrible things to its inhabitants over the decades, and the town that has never quite known what to do about it. It moves back and forth through time, depicting the various families that have come to ruin over the many decades of the house’s existence. There’s also a creepy orchard, mysteriously appearing buttons, and a communal “town narrator” who has a lot of opinions on ...

Another review of Monstrous Alterations has come in, this time from Kirkus Reviews, which had this to say about the book:

Barzak’s lyrical short story collection reimagines fairy tales and other classic stories.

The adaptations draw on children’s classics such as Brothers Grimm fairy tales, J.M. Barrie’s stories of Peter Pan, and L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) to literary staples such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892)and Robert Louis Stevenson’...

I hope everyone out there is doing well. I just wanted to post this review of Monstrous Alterations from Publishers Weekly here, if you’re not following me on one of my socials. It’s made me a very happy writer. I hope if you’ve purchased the collection, and if you’ve begun reading it, that you’re enjoying the stories!

Christopher Barzak. Lethe, $20 trade paper (216p) ISBN 978-1-59021-761-0

Drawing from diverse literary antecedents—including fairy tales like “The ...

Long time, no blog post. Hello, if you’ve found yourself here after not visiting for a while. I just wanted to let readers know that my next book, Monstrous Alterations, is being released on September 8th, 2023, from Lethe Press. Right now you can pre-order the book from the publisher directly (feel free to click to go there), but the book will become available on all the usual platforms and retailers closer to the release date.

You can also right now enter a giveaway at Goodreads for a copy...

It’s been forever and a few days since I last posted anything on my website, but I wanted to make sure to note that today my new novel, The Gone Away Place, releases from Knopf Books for Young Readers. I’m excited as always to have a new book go out into the world, where it will hopefully find the exactly right readers who didn’t know they were even waiting for it, as well as those who have been eagerly anticipating it.

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Some early reviews have already come in. Here are a few excerpts from th...

There’s a giveaway for trade paperback copies of my Stonewall Honor award winning novel, Wonders of the Invisible World, at Goodreads for the month of October. Click over through the link below to enter for a chance.

Giveaway ends October 29, 2016.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

In just less than two weeks, my new novel,Wonders of the Invisible World, will be released. I’m incredibly excited for this book to find its way to readers. The local book launch event for the book will be held at Barnes and Nobles in Boardman, Ohio on September 11th, at 7 PM, where I’ll give a reading and then sign books for attendees. Please join if you can. If you want, you can RSVP on the Facebook invitation to the event, so B&N has a general idea of headcount for the event.

For those of...

Just a note to let anyone coming across my site that two advance readers copies of my next novel,Wonders of the Invisible World, are being given away at Goodreads. Click the link below toenter to win the book ahead of its release date, September 8th, 2015. You have until August 14th to enter.

Giveaway ends August 14, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

In all the hustle and bustle that lead up to the release of “Jamie Marks is Dead” I failed to report a fantastic bit of news that occurred in mid-July. As I’d mentioned in an earlier post back in May, my short story collection Before and Afterliveshad been nominated for the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award in the category of Best Single-Author Collection. In July it was announced that I had won the award. In fact, there were two winners: my collection and Nathan Ballingrud’s amazing collection, Nor...

Last night I had the pleasure of watching Jamie Marks is Dead, the movie based on my first novel, One for Sorrow, in Cleveland, Ohio, with a bunch of friends and family. It was so good to finally have others who I’m close to, people from my community, see it as well. Before it had felt a little bit like Big Bird’s relationship with Mr. Snuffleupagus. No, really, there is a movie out there adapted from my novel! It’s not just imaginary!

Here is me and the director/screenwriter, Carter Smith, wh...