American Arcadia

＂A gorgeous riff of a New York City novel.＂ --Wayne Johnson, Multiple Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of The Red Canoe, Don’t Think Twice, and Six Crooked Highways

New York City, 1985, the scaffolded and torchless Statue of Liberty is under reconstruction, the Twin Towers hum with money, and the clubs pulse with music. Young Wall Streeter, Mina Berg, and her roommate, Chry Risk, strike up friendships with the volatile Danny Nyro and easygoing Dare Fiore. Mina wants Chry’s family prestige, while Chry only wants to play the bass like Jaco Pastorius. Nyro trades on his father’s notoriety and Dare is keeping secrets. Each of these twenty-somethings attempts to rewrite their origin story as they find themselves knotted in the cross purposes of friendship and love, life and death. Meanwhile, the Sicilian grandmothers on Staten Island are telling tall tales of a fugitive mermaid who lives in the New York Harbor. It’s for you to decide if she’s a monster or a saint. Themes of art, immigration, reproductive rights, AIDS, assault, class, and betrayal simmer beneath a dynamic plot that spans one life-altering year.

Laura Scalzo is the author of two novels, American Arcadia (2023) and The Speed of Light in Air, Water, and Glass (2018). Her shorter work has appeared in various journals including, Hobart, HAD, and Ellipses Zine. Among the many jobs she’s held are waitress, office temp, copywriter, Eurodollar broker on the Japan desk, bike company sales rep., and energy commodities derivatives broker. She lives in Washington, DC.