Shelley Jackson

In the critically acclaimed Riddance: Or: The Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing-Mouth Children, children with stutters and other speech impediments attend a school in Massachusetts to learn how to channel the dead. Written in the form of transcripts, found documents, and archival material, the novel is a disquieting supernatural investigation into life after death, and marks the much-anticipated return of a brilliant writer.

Or: the Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers and Hearing-Mouth Children

Riddance

A brilliant, disquieting first novel about a pair of conjoined twins who are deeply unhappy in each other's company. Nora, the dominant twin, is strong, funny, and deeply independent, thirsting for love and adventure. Blanche, by contrast, has been sleeping for nearly twenty years. Finally sick of carrying her sister's dead weight, Nora decides she wants her other half gone for good, so she leaves San Francisco for London in search of the mysterious Unity Foundation, which promises to make two one. And that one, of course, will be Nora -- Blanche will be mourned, but not missed. But once Nora arrives in London, her past begins to surface in surprising and disturbing ways, forcing her into a most reluctant voyage into memory. Something seems to be drawing Nora's thoughts back to the site of her rather unusual conception, birth, and childhood -- the reconstructed ghost town of Too Bad, Nevada, where lizards skitter across the playa and "Shootout at Noon" comes every day. Searching for meaning and understanding in both her own and Blanche's past, Nora pushes herself to the brink of insanity -- and begins to question her own, and Blanche's, grip on the truth. Grotesque, funny, intricately wrought, verbally and conceptually dazzling, Shelley Jackson's first novel is an imaginative and touching portrait of two lives in a cleft world yearning for wholeness -- a world not unlike our own.

A Novel

Half Life

Combining corporeal fantasy with physiological imagery, portrays a world populated by various pieces and products of the human body as it explores the sometimes disturbing, sometimes wondrous aspects of being human.

Stories

The Melancholy of Anatomy

Patchwork Girl

Amusing, touching, and unsettling, The Melancholy of Anatomy is that most wonderful of fictions, one that makes us see the world in an entirely new light. Here is the body turned inside out, its members set free, its humors released upon the world. Hearts bigger than planets devour light and warp the space around them; the city of London has a menstrual flow that gushes through its underground pipes; gobs of phlegm cement friendships and sexual relationships; and a floating fetus larger than a human becomes the new town pastor. In this debut story collection, Shelley Jackson rewrites our private passages, and translates the dumb show of the body into prose as gorgeous as it is unhygienic.

"Eleven-year-old Jane Grandison, tormented by a stutter, is invited to live and study at The Sybil Joines Vocational School for Ghost Speakers & Hearing-Mouth Children, founded in 1890 as a seeming sanctuary for children seeking to cure their speech impediments. However, the Headmistress has found that her students can channel ghostly voices through their handicapped utterances, communicating with the land of the dead, a realm that the Headmistress herself visits at will. Things change for the school when a student disappears, drawing attention from parents and police"--

Ethan Clark

An updated and expanded edition of our hand-illustrated and accessible introduction to the world of bike repair! The first half of this book is a complete repair manual to get you started on choosing the right bike for you, riding that bike, and fixing it when it breaks down. The second half reprints all four issues of the Chainbreaker zine, whose originals were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.

A Rough Guide to Bicycle Maintenance

The Chainbreaker Bike Book

An old woman finally comes to understand and appreciate the huge wave that has hung in the air, sheltering her house, all her life.

The Old Woman and the Wave

A hand-illustrated and accessible introduction to the world of bike repair! Through working at both Plan B Bike Project and French Quarter Bicycles in New Orleans, our co-authors have gathered a wealth of experience to share with would-be mechanics. The first half of this book is a complete repair manual to get you started on choosing, fixing, and riding your bike. The second half reprints all four issues of Chainbreaker zine, whose originals were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.

A Rough Guide to Bicycle Maintenience

Chainbreaker Bike Book

The royal alchemist's dog Sophia is able to discover for herself the secret of making gold, but when the king comes to visit he finds treasure of a different kind.

Shelley Jackson

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