Winner of the 8th Starcherone Prize for Innovative Fiction, Callahan's collection is an intellectual playground of humor, misery, and style inherently crafted with a rich embroidery of imaginative wordplay. The stories invite the reader to invade the personal space of the writer's head, and his underling characters. 

His storm of words tells tales of the life-altering change in a professional athlete, the gifted child with a mind for murder, the personal addiction toward intimacy for the attentions of American fiction writer, Rick Moody--personal favorite.

Callahan's word choices bring the reader up to an intellectual level with deeply involved periods of contemplation. Most of what is contained within this collection is solitary thought many readers have in their own heads, but not the courage (or wisdom) to share.

This is the word of a writer whose corrosive eye and morose humor brilliantly collaborate upon the page. It is different, beautiful, amazingly assembled with exceptional use of experimental grammar style, and thought provoking. 


 



Jonathan Callahan's first book The Consummation of Dirk, selected by judge Zachary Mason as the winner of Starcherone Press's 8th Prize for Innovative Fiction, has just been released by Starcherone, an imprint of Dzanc. Callahan's fiction has appeared in the The Collagist, Pank, Unsaid, Witness, The Lifted Brow, Quarterly West, Keyhole, >Kill Author, Used Furniture Review, Western Humanities Review, Underwater New York, Washington Square Review, and elsewhere. Nonfiction can be found in The Millions, Wag's Revue, and Fiction Writers Review. He grew up in Honolulu, spent a few years in Japan, and currently lives in New York. You can find out more about Dirk here, or here, or contact Jonathan directly at jonathancalla@gmail.com.

Todd Woodruff is currently working on a first novel while chasing his passion for words through the country fields of the Midwest. A blogger, book-reviewer, sass-mouth, and teacher, it's true--rejection letters are proof that readers exist. You can find out more about Todd here.