A bold, unsettling, and sinister collection of stories that ask what monster means.

What is a monster? The word encompasses the grotesque, the immoral, or the merely wondrous. Mythical creatures, corrupt executives and mean exes are all monsters. Monsters live among us. Sometimes the monster is us.

What do monsters mean to writers? Here is a literary grab-bag: fourteen writers from diverse genres — literary, mystery, horror, the experimental — interpret monsters either literal or metaphorical. The result is a snapshot of the state of contemporary underground fiction.

Stories from: Sifton Tracy Anipare, Steve Burrows, Brenda Chapman, Chinenye Emezie, Barbara Fradkin, Zsuzsi Gartner, Liz Harmer, Babak Lakghomi, Pasha Malla, Andrew Pyper, Naben Ruthnum, Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson, Andrew Sullivan, and Emily Weedon.