Pretend It's My Body

Informed by the author’s experience in and between genders, this debut collection blurs fantasy and reality, excavating new meanings from our varied dysphorias.

In the vein of Carmen Maria Machado, Kelly Link, and Daniel Lavery, these ten short stories ricochet between the lives we wish for and the ones we actually lead. A tornado survivor grapples with a new identity, a trans teen psychic can read only indecisive minds, and a woman informs her family of her plans to upload her consciousness and abandon her body. Ranging from con artists, middle-aged runaways, and prodigal "un-daughters," Luke Dani Blue’s cast of misfits insist on marginal lives made central and magical thinking made real.

Surreal, darkly humorous, and always deeply felt, Pretend It’s My Body is bound together by the act of searching—for a story of one’s own, for a glimpse of certainty, and for a spark of recognition and human connection.