Favorite Monster (Autumn House Press Fiction Prize)

By all rights, these comic tales, with their cyclopses and serial killers, werewolves and writers, medusas and managers, ought to collapse into lighthearted whimsy. Instead they unfold into objects of extraordinary beauty and darkness, rendered in prose that can turn on a dime from the deadpan to the profound. Sharma Shields is a cutup, a sneak, and a badass -- she will crack you up with these charming beasts, and then, in a stage whisper, reveal who the real monster is. (Hint: it's you.) -- J. Robert Lennon

Sharma Shields' Favorite Monster is a deliciously bent collection of short stories -- funny, disturbing and surprisingly profound. A wildly entertaining survey of the modern habits of the cyclops, the Sasquatch, the werewolf, and perhaps the most monstrous of all, the human -- this book is fantastic in every sense of the word. -- Jess Walter