Homesick

Nino Cipri is a queer and trans/nonbinary writer, editor, and educator. A longtime resident of Chicago, they are a graduate of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop and now an MFA candidate at the University of Kansas. Nino’s fiction and essays have been published by dozens of different venues, including Daily Science Fiction, Fireside Fiction, Nightmare Magazine, Interfiction, Tor.com, and more. Nino has also written plays, screenplays, and radio features; performed as a dancer, actor, and puppeteer; and worked as a stagehand, bookseller, bike mechanic, and labor organizer. One time, an angry person on the internet called Nino a verbal terrorist, which was pretty funny.

"Nino Cipri’s Homesick makes the idea of home into a prism and beams a core of queerness through it, refracting into nine surreal and moving stories about families lost, found and transformed. The stories vary from formal experiments to deeply felt character meditations, from a three-page piece of flash fiction to a well-developed novella, and from heartbreak to horror to humor. Over all they excel in a kind of subtle startling, like meeting unexpected ripples in a mirror. ... Absolutely wonderful in every respect." —New York Times Book Review"These stories are so deliciously queer and dark and playful; Cipri is a treasure." —Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties"The fantastical landscapes of Cipri’s nine tales heighten the moments of crisis that force characters to confront the here and now as well as life’s gritty unknowns." —Booklist"These stories are delicious speculative confections, as masterful as Kelly Link’s but even more approachable. ... For Cipri, home is elusive, problematized, and an ache for home encompasses a desire for acceptance, safety, and even innocence." —Vol 1 Brooklyn"The queer stories in Homesick are as mystifying as they are provocative, and will appeal to fans of literary fiction and speculative genre fiction alike ... Since it's a collection of stories, Homesick offers many stopping points. Like unraveling the mysteries of prehistoric intelligent weasels, however, stopping proves to be quite impossible." —Shelf Awareness"Emerging writer and self-described weirdo mixes monsters, zombies, Super Little Dead Girls and poltergeists with screenplay, lists and good old-fashioned storytelling. The result: an excellent and entertaining collection. ... Also, shout-out to Cipri’s snappy dialogue and devotion to offbeat rhetorical questions — 'Do you think zombies can go through revolving doors?'" —Broken Pencil Magazine"A riveting first collection that announces a major new talent unafraid to embrace the beauty of the mysterious. Uncanny, gorgeous, unyielding, original, and unforgettable." —Ann and Jeff VanderMeer"I remember reading Nino Cipri's first pro story and saying, 'This is someone whose career I want to follow.' The fact that that first story is included in this collection is testament to the mature, electric voice Cipri has cultivated from the beginning. Every story here is a gem that deserves to be read and read again." —Sarah Pinsker, author of Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea"It's hard for my to wrap my mind around how, exactly, a book can be so simultaneously scary and sweet, terrifying and tender. In both individual stories, and throughout the whole collection, Nino Cipri traverses a dizzying range of emotional and imaginative territory. These are high-concept stories—featuring time travel, hauntings, and some very scary little girls—but they always remain rooted in the reality of human feeling. Cipri is one of our most imaginative and insightful new writers, and this is a genuinely brilliant book." —Kristen Roupenian, author of "Cat Person" and You Know You Want This"Nino Cipri's Homesick is the best story collection I've read in ages. Every one of these short stories is a tiny reality bomb, delightfully demolishing my expectations while opening up passageways to places I'd never been before. Equal parts queer and surreal, these tales will captivate your heart while keeping you guessing and wondering. A must for fans of Kelly Link and Justin Chin." —Charlie Jane Anders, author of The City in the Middle of the Night