The Head

＂Intelligent, spooky, original, and fall-down funny, The Head runs in dark layers from page one.＂ - Jason Emde, author of Little Bit Die

A surreal and penetrating tale of academia, work life, and surviving trauma.

On the morning of her thirtieth birthday, Dr. Trish Russo, a math professor at Cascadia University, discovers a disembodied but living infant head on her dresser. Attached to nothing, somehow it still manages to wail and produce tears. Unsure what else to do, she takes it with her to work, if only to keep her neighbours from complaining about the head’s terrible cries.

At the university, her colleagues are mortified, not of the head itself, but that Trish has brought it into the office with her. She is soon put on leave and hopes that visiting her parents might provide some solace and advice on what she should do with the head. But no matter where she turns, Trish finds no help and is instead vilified for not knowing what to do with this impossible thing that has happened to her.

The Head is a bizarre journey through trauma, bad relationships, and toxic workplace culture.

Robyn Braun is a professor at the University of Alberta. Her science writing has appeared in Today’s Parent, Scientific American, New Scientist, and Discover. Her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have appeared in Thirds, samfzftyfour, Coin Operated Press Zines, Wrongdoing Magazine, and Flight of the Dragonfly among others. Her essay, ＂The Stutter of Emmett’s Stutter＂ won subTerrain’s 2021 Lush Triumphant prize for CNF. The Head is her first novella.