North American Lake Monsters

"Nathan Ballingrud is one of my favorite short fiction writers."—Jeff VanderMeer "Nathan Ballingrud's 'The Way Station' is another story of the sort I've come to expect from him: emotionally intense, riveting, and deeply upsetting in many ways. It deals with loss, with the aftereffects of Katrina on a homeless alcoholic who's haunted by the city itself be-fore the flood, and in doing so it's wrenching. . . . It's an excellent story that paints a riveting por-trait of a man, his city, and his loss."—Tor.com on The Naked City "But the two most remarkable stories in Naked City are by relatively new authors: 'The Projected Girl' (Haifa) by Lavie Tidhar and 'The Way Station' (New Orleans and St. Petersburg, Florida) by Nathan Ballingrud are both heartbreakers."—John Clute on Strange Hori-zons These are love stories. And also monster stories. Sometimes these are mon-sters in their traditional guises, sometimes they wear the faces of parents, lovers, or ourselves. The often working-class people in these stories are driven to extremes by love. Sometimes, they are ruined; sometimes redeemed. All are faced with the loneliest corners of themselves and strive to find an escape. Nathan Ballingrud was born in Massachusetts but has spent most of his life in the South. He worked as a bartender in New Orleans and New York City and a cook on offshore oil rigs. His story "The Monsters of Heaven" won the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with his daughter.