Nik Perring writes stories. Mainly short ones. He’s also the author of a children’s book. His work’s been published widely, in places including 3:AM magazine, Smokelong Quarterly, Dogmatika, Espresso Fiction and Metazen. Occasionally he teaches people how to write.
He blogs here.
His website’s here.
He tweets as @nikperring.
If I could recommend just one book it would have to be Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender. It gives me shivers – the good kind – every time I think of it. It’s a collection, Aimee’s second, of fifteen short stories and there isn’t a bad one amongst them – they’re all brilliant. Each story seems better than the previous one, and when each is a gem, that’s saying something. That’s why, when I first read it, I limited myself to one story per night; I really didn’t want it to end.
The stories are odd and fantastic. Some have the feel of fairy-tales and some are bizarre or wonderfully imaginative. But as bizarre or fantastic as they may be (one’s about a family of pumpkinheads who have an iron-headed child, another’s about a boy whose hands are shaped like keys) they all, in their own way, remind us what it is to be human – sometimes it’s hilarious and sometimes it’s heartbreaking. And I think that’s where Aimee Bender really shines – it’s her ability to give you characters, no matter how alien, that are familiar and who you can’t help being interested in and caring about. Or who, even with their iron heads, remind us of ourselves.
And it contains ‘The Meeting’ which, I think, is about as close to the perfect short story as I’ve read.
- This is Aimee Bender’s website.
- Here’s her wiki page.
- Go here is you wish to read an interview with Aimee Bender.
- You can buy a copy of the book here.
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