Short stories
August 2023
The Aliens Will Come to Georgia First
by Stephen Hundley
An otherworldly debut from award-winning short story author Stephen Hundley, The Aliens Will Come To Georgia First presents a no holds barred meditation on the lives of small town Southerners pursuing acceptance, love, revenge, and reconciliation in the families and communities that bind them. An electrifying debut from Stephen Hundley, winner of the 2019 Larry Brown Short Story Award, The Aliens Will Come To Georgia First offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of a working class, American south populated by people who have made themselves acolytes of existential powers. Set in Georgia’s swamps, foothills, forests, and barrier islands, each story explores the wild hopes and fears of men and women who grapple with death, distant lovers, and damaged families as well as sharks, stray dogs, and man-eating tigers. A boy and girl find a body on the marsh, a delusional nude model takes on the fight of his life, and a diver visits a sleeping nuclear bomb just a mile from the beach. Tourists eat shrimp and cheer for dolphins while a man falls in love with his television and a handy-woman sees jellyfish-like travelers from outer space. These unique portraits of people and relationships stretch, prod, and redefine the dynamics that compose family, faith, and our sense of place. Surreal and gritty, spiritual and rebellious, The Aliens Will Come To Georgia First forms its own galaxy of stories that mesmerize with their unflinching honesty, signaling the explosive entrance of a shining new voice in contemporary Southern fiction.
