An Archive of Brightness by Kelsey Socha

In the skies, murders of crows and a ragtag vulture collect each story and archive them as they build an archive of brightness.

A chef in an Antarctic research facility sews anatomical hearts into her beloved’s lab coat. A young girl begins growing wings and struggles with her new, developing body. A lonely architect builds structures from scorpion skeletons in a desert town. Two small-town lobstermen harbor a secret affection. One of their latest releases, Kelsey Socha’s An Archive of Brightness, is a refreshing novella which grips readers not only with its philosophical takes on beginnings and endings but also its intimate poesy.Īn Archive of Brightness threads multiple stories into one. Their catalog is a refreshing cabinet of curiosities. What initially impressed me about Lanternfish Press is their dedication to the strange, the gothic, the taboo. Lanternfish Press is one of those presses I discovered quite a few years ago at AWP and have followed ever since. As sincerely human as it is philosophical, An Archive of Brightness brings insight and depth to the small details of life that are only disguised as ordinary.“An Archive of Brightness” by Kelsey Socha “Socha’s intimate and sharp-witted musings give staying power to the ephemera of our individual and collective experiences. Matthew Vesely, author of Elegy for the Undead Socha has woven together a lawless assortment of experiences, telling a story of queerness, mundanity, and a murder (of crows).” Isaac Fellman, author of Lambda Literary Award-winning novel The Breath of the Sun She is bold, unpredictable, and a writer to watch.” Socha's writing is witty but never shallow, with a crow's eye for detail and an archivist's eye for the unexpected meanings that come to the surface of a story when you shake it. “A quirky tribute to the messy, often world-changing experience of love.” Each love story becomes, in its own way, the end of a world-and the beginning of a new one. A flock of crows and an untidy vulture observe and collect these moments of human tenderness as they build an archive of brightness. A lonely architect building houses and machines from the exoskeletons of scorpions in a desert town. Two stoic lobstermen harboring a secret affection.

An Archive of Brightness by Kelsey Socha