Open Wounds: Short Stories

By Samantha Moe

Winner of the Barbara DiBernard Prize in Fiction

Otherworldly, grief-stricken, carnal, and yearning, Open Wounds is a short story collection of ghosts, lost daughters, and transformation, drawing on the author's Ecuadorian heritage. Each story focuses on a different set of characters who, for reasons relating to trauma or violence, are incapable of communicating with each other. Characters become rag dolls and nymphs. The person you desperately need to speak with turns into a wolf at your dinner party, then swallows you whole. The stories represent the lived experiences of queer folks who had to live alternative lifestyles to avoid the violence of their families. Featuring chronically ill and disabled characters who live in the liminal spaces of cities and forests, Open Wounds explores how we grow differently in safe versus unsafe spaces.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1496251385
• ISBN13: 9781496251381
• Release Date: May 2027
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 242 Pages