“Horses,” a story originally published in May of 2016 by Found Press, is now available as a limited edition, hand-bound chapbook, lovingly crafted by FP founder Bryan Ibeas. Head to his Etsy store to order a copy, and while you’re at it pick up chapbooks written by the likes of Seyward Goodhand, Liz Harmer, Grace O’Connell, Kirsty Logan, Kathryn Mocker, Matt Cahill, and others.

It’s common, when talking about things below the surface, to mention icebergs. He prefers to think of trees, whose enormous canopies are mirrored in sprawling root systems, hidden from view by dirt, vegetation, parking lots. They are stubborn and tireless, but also flexible, mutable. They can accommodate, and bend, and redirect themselves. Unlike our pipes, he thinks, our wires, our gas lines, which are fixed and static. This is what a crew in the south end learned. They’d gone down to an existing gas line, set to be rerouted for a new road, and found roots, like thick, frozen serpents, and when they’d attempted to remove them they’d punctured the line, which sent debris both organic and mineral lashing outward, and forced skyward a roaring spume of natural gas.

— from “Horses,” now available at Found Press

I recorded myself reading the first story I ever published with Found Press, “The Expansiveness of My Sound,” about an Ethiopian saxophonist named Metche Hufu (which was cut from the book, though not, I believe, for a lack of quality, but because it just didn’t fit the overall tone). A teaser of the recording is available here, and you can hear the whole thing if you subscribe to FP which, even if they hadn’t taken three of my stories, I’d still be quick to suggest you do. It’s a wonderful site for lovers of short fiction, well worth your time and (tiny bit of) money.