AMBER SPARKS

FICTION

Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders

The Vanishing Princess – Jenny Diski

Wait Till You See Me Dance - Deb Olin Unferth

Difficult Women – Roxane Gay

The Teeth of the Comb and Other Stories - Osama Alomar

Isadora – Amelia Gray

The Week – Joanna Ruocco

I Remember Nightfall – Marosa di Giorgio, collection translated by Jeannine Marie Pitas

Temporary People - Deepak Unnukrisksn

Big Lonesome – Joseph Scapellato

The Grip of It – Jac Jemc

Motherest – Kristin Iskandrian

Sour Heart – Jenny Zhang

Frontier – Can Xue

The Sarah Book – Scott McClanahan

Her Body and Other Parties – Carmen Maria Machado

Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng

The Book of Joan - Lidia Yuknavitch

The Red Barn – Nat Baldwin

The Woman Who Lived Amongst the Cannibals - Robert Kloss

Eat Only When You’re Hungry – Lindsay Hunter

The Changeling - Victor LaValle

Crybaby Lane - Laura Ellen Scott

The Dark Dark: Stories – Samantha Hunt

Sing, Unburied, Sing – Jesmyn Ward

Always Happy Hour – Mary Miller

NON-FICTION

The Invention of Angela Carter – Edmund Gordon

A Woman is a Woman Until She is a Mother – Anna Prushinskaya

Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life – Yiyun Li

The Book of Mutter - Kate Zambreno

Dying: A Memoir – Cory Taylor

Caca Dolce – Chelsea Martin

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life – Samantha Irby

Killers of the Flower Moon – David Grann

Sunshine State – Sarah Gerard

Sorry to Disrupt the Peace – Patty Yumi Cottrell

 POETRY 

House of Lords and Commons - Ishion Hutchinson

Whereas – Layli Long Soldier

Certain Magical Acts – Alice Notley

Don’t Call Us Dead: Poems – Danez Smith

Debths - Susan Howe

Hacker – Aase Berg

Calling a Wolf a Wolf - Kaveh Akbar

 BOOKS I HAVE NOT YET READ BUT PRETTY MUCH KNOW WOULD OTHERWISE MAKE THIS LIST:

 Tales of Falling and Flying - Ben Loory

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us - Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib

The Odyssey – translated by Emily Wilson

The Millions: “ The second collection of short fiction by Sparks, The Unfinished World comprises 19 short (often very short) stories, surreal and fantastic numbers with titles like “The Lizzie Borden Jazz Babies” and “Janitor in Space.” “

Chicago Tribune: “Sparks follows up "May We Shed These Human Bodies," her celebrated debut story collection via Chicago's Curbside Splendor, with another set of fantastical tales — this time starring sculptors, time travelers, librarians, taxidermists and other unlikely characters.”

Vol 1 Brooklyn: “The works in Amber Sparks’s second short story collection, The Unfinished World, delve into the realm of the surreal in numerous and varied ways.”

Indie Next: “ Comparisons can be made to Haruki Murakami or George Saunders, but the writing is honestly unlike anything I have ever read. The otherworldliness of these stories will transport you beyond the minutiae of your everyday life and alter the way you look at the world.” —Shawn Donley, Powell’s Books”

Should I smile?

I should smile. That was a compliment - it’s polite to smile. It doesn’t take any effort.

God, I hate that other people are looking at me now. I feel like I have to respond. Are they trying to figure out what looks good? Are they judging me? 5 out of 10 stars? Nice ass, softish stomach, teeth need work?

Maybe just a little smile. A no-teeth smile. A thanks but stay away smile.

I smile too much. That’s what the women in my life tell me. Stop smiling so much. You don’t owe that smile to anybody. Stop giving it away.

I can say I have a husband (true) and a baby (true). I can say I’m taken.

But that’s bullshit. I don’t belong to any man, including my husband. I’m not “taken.” If you respect me because I’m wearing a ring then you’re just respecting another man’s property. You’re not respecting me. I should say this. I should make this shit known.

But I don’t want them to think I’m a bitch. What if they were just being nice? I was raised to be a nice person. Polite. It doesn’t hurt to smile.

I do look good today. I like this dress. I’ve lost some weight and my hair looks good. I did my makeup today. They’re just seeing that, you know? Seeing the effort I put in. I should be validated, right? 

But this effort is for me, not for other people. This is just for me.

Am I a bitch?

I don’t owe this person anything. I don’t owe them a smile or a response. I know they just want to make me feel uncomfortable. Why am I giving them the benefit of the doubt? I know exactly what the intention is here. The intention is to rob me of my fucking agency, is it not? To reduce me to an object? I’m not stupid. I know this. Why am I pretending not to know it?

Because I’m scared. Because the blue terror has frozen me to the spot. If I ignore this person, will they follow me? Will they shout nasty things after me? Will it escalate?

Was I walking a certain way? Is this dress too tight? Maybe red lipstick draws too much attention. I have blonde hair - too blonde, I suppose. I am showy, a show off. I earned this attention. I deserve it.

Am I the straw? Is this the next school shooter? The next movie theater shooter? The next army base shooter? Will he shoot me? Stab me? My work is right there. Will he wait for me? Will he hang out here until I leave? Will he follow me home? Will he hear my name and look me up online? Am I a target if I say what I really think of this asshole? Or am I making someone else a target? His mother, his sister, his girlfriend, his ex, all women? Am I the straw? Am I a bitch? Why can’t I just smile and say thank you? Why can’t I placate? Like some wild animal. Back away, smile, don’t look it in the eye. Don’t get it angry, ruffle feather and fur. Save a life. Maybe yours. Maybe someone else’s. 

Don’t be the straw. 

It’s just a smile, after all. What does it cost? So it makes you feel gritty, gross, coated in shame. You’re alive. You’re alive. You’re alive and whole. 

Pay for your life. Smile. Bigger. Wider. Smile smile smile. Say thank you. Laugh a little. Thank you for not hurting me. Thank you for not stalking/humiliating/shouting at/cursing at/attacking/assaulting/killing me. Thank you for my life.

People whom I hugely admire like my book! Here is what they had to say, these lovely writers:

Laura van den Berg “Amber Sparks is one of my favorite writers working today. Her stories are brutal beauties, guaranteed to explode your brain and steal your heart, and The Unfinished World and Other Stories is vintage Sparks: endlessly inventive, thrillingly imaginative, utterly assured. I loved this wild miracle of a collection.”

Matt Bell “Reading The Unfinished World and Other Stories is like being given the keys to the mysterious back rooms of a great museum: everywhere you look there is another wonder, strange and surprising and fashioned with admirable skill. Amber Sparks is a master curator—part historian, part scientist, all storyteller—and her curiosity is boundless and intoxicating, leading her time and again to stories that will intrigue and enchant any reader willing to be moved to amazement and joy.”

Roxane Gay “In The Unfinished World and Other Stories, Amber Sparks is a master of the fantastic. Here are stories about fever librarians and brothers who are swans, time travelers and space janitors. With each story, Sparks defies the known world in absolutely thrilling ways.”

Timothy Schaffert “The stories of The Unfinished World are exciting in their invention and sharp in their insights—the collection a thrilling riff on history and pop culture, fairy tale and fantasy. Amber Sparks is as perversely entertaining as Margaret Atwood, her writing as lush as Angela Carter’s.”

I miss being interesting. I don’t think you age, I think you bleed Into the background Which is why I wear loud thoughts and hang out in seedy parlors Spreading my skirts and shaking loose unseemly meta-rumors About all the martyred saints There should be a scale of saintliness How many cuts, arrows, heads lost How many body parts burned for fuel But of course suffering is the sigil, and you can’t claim Your trophy headless, Unless you’re heading beyond the pale or beyond the beyond. You remember back in the day When everyone was having sex with ghosts? Everyone but you, you were always miles behind the curve All your friends were screwing Charlemagne But you were watching vampire porn, and everybody rolled their eyes When you said, hey, let’s have an undead orgy And they said well, you always had a laugh track mind

YOU GUYS YOU GUYS. The fabulous Cassandra Gillig made this mashup of Wallace Stevens's "Puella Parvella" and Nas's "Represent" for me because I backed the Big Lucks Kickstarter. Because, natch, Nas is my favorite rapper and Stevens is my favorite poet so why wouldn't you put these two badasses in an auditory room together and let things bounce around? 

Anyway the results are awesome and Big Lucks is awesome and Cassandra is awesome and I hope she puts out an album of these mashups someday.

You are a lot like World War I In that most Americans Don't understand you

Or why you’re such a big deal Or where your boundaries are Or who shot first I could say we all got born in jail but come on History isn’t that small And this is not a metaphor, it’s a joke A joke made of corncob and ash twigs A joke made of metaphors, okay and life Is more beautiful here under the guns You and me Dragging silver strings of time behind Taking flattering selfies in trenches Making duck lips in the blood gutters You had to know it like I know it, this mad light: burnt, decayed, greening swaying like a drunk in this unsteady century You never thought you would die I never thought I would get arm fat Yet here we are