AnnElise Hatjakes holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Missouri and an MFA in fiction from the University of Nevada, Reno, where she works as a teaching assistant professor. Her stories have appeared in Juked, Bull, Tahoma Literary Review, and Typehouse, among other journals, and have been shortlisted for the Neil Shepard Prize in Fiction and the Curt Johnson Prose Award.

• Contents 1. Andromeda 2. Fire Season 3. Backscatter 4. Horseplay 5. Alternate Route Suggested 6. Conventions 7. Twice-Exceptional 8. A Male Revue 9. Artifacts Worth Saving 10. This Content Is Currently Unavailable Acknowledgments About the Author

"Brutal yet tender, wry but clear-eyed, Matter Out of Place is an eerie love letter to the West, one that will slice your heart open. These finely crafted stories navigate the dizzying contradictions demanded of women in ways that feel both timeless and painfully specific to our late-stage capitalist present." - Casey Bell, author of Little Fury "Matter Out of Place reads like a status update from the underbelly of the American dream. The Nevada setting evokes both the scarcity of the desert and the excess of the casino, creating a landscape that is by turns comical, threatening, and absurd. The collection sizzles with sounds, sights, sensations, and brutal economic assessments. Hatjakes, who writes with the observational skills of a journalist and the precision of a poet, has a sharp eye for the characters of our century: the influencers and content managers, the ghost hunters and beauty consultants, the exotic dancers and security guards. Formally inventive and psychologically astute, Matter Out of Place should win Hatjakes her own place in the literary canon of the Wild West and beyond." - Trudy Lewis, author of The Empire Rolls"The Nevada landscape of Matter Out of Place is constantly shifting, requiring characters to keep up—or catch up. Readers hold out hope for these characters, while also feeling very strongly just how long the odds are for them to get what they want. Hatjakes is an exciting new voice in short fiction." - Kate McIntyre, associate professor of creative writing, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, author of Mad Prairie, recipient of the Flannery O'Connor Award

AnnElise Hatjakes holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Missouri and an MFA in fiction from the University of Nevada, Reno, where she works as a teaching assistant professor. Her stories have appeared in Juked, Bull, Tahoma Literary Review, and Typehouse, among other journals, and have been shortlisted for the Neil Shepard Prize in Fiction and the Curt Johnson Prose Award.

• Contents 1. Andromeda 2. Fire Season 3. Backscatter 4. Horseplay 5. Alternate Route Suggested 6. Conventions 7. Twice-Exceptional 8. A Male Revue 9. Artifacts Worth Saving 10. This Content Is Currently Unavailable Acknowledgments About the Author

"Brutal yet tender, wry but clear-eyed, Matter Out of Place is an eerie love letter to the West, one that will slice your heart open. These finely crafted stories navigate the dizzying contradictions demanded of women in ways that feel both timeless and painfully specific to our late-stage capitalist present." - Casey Bell, author of Little Fury "Matter Out of Place reads like a status update from the underbelly of the American dream. The Nevada setting evokes both the scarcity of the desert and the excess of the casino, creating a landscape that is by turns comical, threatening, and absurd. The collection sizzles with sounds, sights, sensations, and brutal economic assessments. Hatjakes, who writes with the observational skills of a journalist and the precision of a poet, has a sharp eye for the characters of our century: the influencers and content managers, the ghost hunters and beauty consultants, the exotic dancers and security guards. Formally inventive and psychologically astute, Matter Out of Place should win Hatjakes her own place in the literary canon of the Wild West and beyond." - Trudy Lewis, author of The Empire Rolls"The Nevada landscape of Matter Out of Place is constantly shifting, requiring characters to keep up—or catch up. Readers hold out hope for these characters, while also feeling very strongly just how long the odds are for them to get what they want. Hatjakes is an exciting new voice in short fiction." - Kate McIntyre, associate professor of creative writing, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, author of Mad Prairie, recipient of the Flannery O'Connor Award

AnnElise Hatjakes holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Missouri and an MFA in fiction from the University of Nevada, Reno, where she works as a teaching assistant professor. Her stories have appeared in Juked, Bull, Tahoma Literary Review, and Typehouse, among other journals, and have been shortlisted for the Neil Shepard Prize in Fiction and the Curt Johnson Prose Award.

• Contents 1. Andromeda 2. Fire Season 3. Backscatter 4. Horseplay 5. Alternate Route Suggested 6. Conventions 7. Twice-Exceptional 8. A Male Revue 9. Artifacts Worth Saving 10. This Content Is Currently Unavailable Acknowledgments About the Author

"Brutal yet tender, wry but clear-eyed, Matter Out of Place is an eerie love letter to the West, one that will slice your heart open. These finely crafted stories navigate the dizzying contradictions demanded of women in ways that feel both timeless and painfully specific to our late-stage capitalist present." - Casey Bell, author of Little Fury "Matter Out of Place reads like a status update from the underbelly of the American dream. The Nevada setting evokes both the scarcity of the desert and the excess of the casino, creating a landscape that is by turns comical, threatening, and absurd. The collection sizzles with sounds, sights, sensations, and brutal economic assessments. Hatjakes, who writes with the observational skills of a journalist and the precision of a poet, has a sharp eye for the characters of our century: the influencers and content managers, the ghost hunters and beauty consultants, the exotic dancers and security guards. Formally inventive and psychologically astute, Matter Out of Place should win Hatjakes her own place in the literary canon of the Wild West and beyond." - Trudy Lewis, author of The Empire Rolls"The Nevada landscape of Matter Out of Place is constantly shifting, requiring characters to keep up—or catch up. Readers hold out hope for these characters, while also feeling very strongly just how long the odds are for them to get what they want. Hatjakes is an exciting new voice in short fiction." - Kate McIntyre, associate professor of creative writing, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, author of Mad Prairie, recipient of the Flannery O'Connor Award