by Feliks Garcia, Offsite Editor
“Your Honor, and may it please the court. You would all be dead without me,” Poseidon, the Greek god of the ocean, tells the US Court of Appeals in P.E. Garcia’s short, mordant piece, “US v. Approximately 64,695 Pounds of Shark Fins.” This and ten other works are included in Garcia’s latest chapbook, now available from Awst Press.
The chapbook is part of a series curated by Tatiana Ryckman, who calls Garcia a “sort of MacGyver of story,” using tools of the craft in ways previously unimagined. Indeed, the stories in this collection are as unsettling as they are hilarious, as whimsical as they are raw, as unbelievable as they are real.
The Austin-based publisher is itself quite unique; its series are curated by a rotation of guest editors, who choose emerging authors with fascinating voices. The current series, curated by Ryckman, includes work by Chelsea Martin, Laura Warman, and Normandy Sherwood, in addition to Garcia.
P.E. Garcia is currently a PhD candidate at Temple University in Philadelphia, a blogger for The Rumpus, an online editor for Hunger Mountain, and former managing editor of Queen Mob’s Tea House (where he has also published a number of excellent pieces, including his provocative piece on Kenneth Goldsmith). His Awst Collection is available for purchase in digital or print, $1.99 and $5, respectively.