Ricky: & Other Love Stories

From Whitney Collins, the award-winning author of Big Bad, come twenty-three new dark and derelict (and hilarious) tales about--you guessed it--love.

With Ricky, Collins applies her sharp eye, black humor, and generous heart to love stories (and the stories we tell ourselves about love). Among the wacky, tacky, lovesick, and lovelorn characters are: Ilona, the misanthropic mother and unhappy fiancé who is increasingly transfixed by a rash of local shark attacks; Imogen, the sperm bank client who cultivates the love she madly desires inside herself; and Aurora Flood, the coma survivor on a mission to plant a sacred seed from the Olive Garden. Blending elements of southern gothic, speculative fiction, and horror, Ricky & Other Love Stories is political and personal, bitter and sweet: ultimately, a lot like love.

Whitney Collins is the author of Big Bad, winner of the 2019 Mary McCarthy Prize, a 2022 IPPY Gold Medal, and a 2021 INDIES Bronze Medal. She received a 2020 Pushcart Prize, a 2020 Pushcart Special Mention, and won the 2020 American Short(er) Fiction Prize and the 2021 ProForma Contest. Her stories have appeared in AGNI, Gulf Coast, American Short Fiction, and Best Small Fictions 2022, among others. Whitney lives in Lexington, KY