Introducing an electrifying new voice in contemporary fiction that illuminates the many forces that haunt us.
An influencer attempts to derail a viral TV marketing campaign with her violent cult following. A marriage between two ghost hunters is threatened when one of them loses her ability to see spirits. The lives of a famous painter in the twilight of her career and a teenage ufo enthusiast converge when a mysterious glowing orb appears in their small desert town. And a slasher-flick screenwriter looking for inspiration escapes a pack of wild dogs only to find herself locked in an suv with a strange man beside her.
From the all-too-real horror of a sexual predator on a college campus to a lost sister transformed by cave-dwelling creatures, Lena Valencia’s debut story collection, Mystery Lights, grapples with terrors both familiar and fantastic.
Lena Valencia’s fiction has appeared in Ninth Letter, Epiphany, Joyland, the anthology Tiny Nightmares, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a 2019 Elizabeth George Foundation grant and holds an MFA in fiction from The New School. Originally from Los Angeles, she lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she is the managing editor and director of educational programming at One Story and the co-host of the reading series Ditmas Lit.
Interview: with Lena Valencia, The Adroit Journal
Read: The Mortal Perils of Being an Instagram Influencer, Electric Lit
Prompt: Write a story incorporating all of the following words in any order you wish:
brown, crease, velvet, lollipop, fried, square, ball, team, bubbles, white
alone, bullying, league, maverick, friend, quiet, clue, pilot, women and crisp.