Samantha Hunt's novel about Nikola Tesla, The Invention of Everything Else, was a finalist for the Orange Prize and winner of the Bard Fiction Prize. Her first novel, The Seas, earned her selection as one of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35. Her novel, Mr. Splitfoot, was an IndieNext Pick. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, McSweeney's, Tin House, A Public Space, and many other publications. She lives in upstate New York.
Winner of the 2019 St. Francis College Literary Prize
A 2018 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Finalist
A 2017 Shirley Jackson Award nominee
An NPR Best Book of 2017
A Vogue Best Book We Read All Year
A Huffington Post Best Fiction Book of 2017
A Kirkus Best Fiction of 2017 pick
A National Post (Canada) Best Book of 2017
A Chicago Review of Books Best Fiction Books of 2017 pick
An Electric Literature Best Short Story Collection of 2017
A Paris Review staff pick
A W Magazine Book by Women Writers to Read This Summer
"The Dark Dark . . . wields such a subtle and alien power that I
couldn't read more than a couple of pieces in a sitting without
feeling like some witchy substance was working its way through my
blood . . . Wonderfully spooky." --Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker
"Beguiling . . . daring . . . Hunt at her best is a lot like the
uncle of one character, who is described as 'so good at imagining
things' that 'he makes the imagined things real.' Hunt's dreamlike
images operate in service to earthbound ideas . . . [She] gets at
the myriad ways women work to keep their self-possession in the
face of social and interpersonal expectations." --John Williams,
The New York Times "A daring collection in which Hunt gives her
imagination free reign, allowing her characters to careen off the
rails in their search for something more in the darkness." --Joy
Press, Los Angeles Times "Liminal fantasy with a solid literary
sensibility; sure to please fans of Karen Russell and Lidia
Yuknavitch . . . The Dark Dark chews on some delicious, evergreen
themes in extraordinary ways." --Carmen Maria Machado, NPR "The
Dark Dark, more than anything else, is an example of the sheer
force of storytelling, of the power of narrative to elicit
understanding and emotional response at an unspeakable, unspoken
level." --Robert J. Wiersema, The National Post "The Dark Dark
reads like a feminist manifesto threaded through imaginative
fiction; it's the most evocative, impressive collection I've read
this year." --Daniel Johnson, The Paris Review "Hunt, with the
publication of her first collection of stories, "The Dark Dark, ''
is poised to break through as one of our major fiction writers . .
. Hunt is by turns hilarious, wry, wrenching, and lyrical."
--Priscilla Gilman, The Boston Globe
"Each of the stories in this collection harbors a surreal twist . .
. Hunt lingers over such moments just long enough to suggest that
the phantasmagorical can be found in any situation, no matter how
banal." --The New Yorker
"Rife with symbolism and feminist subtext, Hunt's prose style and
ability to weave together fantastical details and factual research
into stunningly original scenes makes for captivating reading."
--Bust "The stories are marked with superbly nuanced writing, a
rich sense of visual detail and perhaps a kind of courage on the
part of the author, as she dares blending fantasy with naturalism."
--David Wiegand, The San Francisco Chronicle "Samantha Hunt writes
about the ordinary through a supernatural kaleidoscope. She holds
the mundane and extraordinary up to the light and tries to explain
the shadows . . . Hunt's writing does not gloss over the dark, ugly
parts of womanhood. Instead, she allows women the space to be wild
in ways the real world does not--by writing with empathy and
grace." --Carolyn Quimby, Chronogram "The stories intertwine what's
extraordinary and familiar in meaningful ways, taking on density
and weight . . . Reading pleasures abound in Hunt's incisive and
witty prose and characters who linger in the mind like
acquaintances you hope to meet again." --Katie Pelletier, The
Portland Mercury "What makes The Dark Dark so refreshing is Hunt's
willingness to work in the unapologetically weird . . . It's a
welcome statement of purpose, and a reminder that certain familiar
places and themes are ripe for their own fictional revival."
--Tobias Carroll, Bookforum
"Like in our best Lynchean dreams, these are stories with talons
dipped into the eerie and the supernatural . . . The writing in The
Dark Dark is swoon-worthy, and craft-wise, there is not one hair
out of place. In fact, if you were standing before me I might push
this book immediately into your hands . . . Samantha Hunt has
written a perfect story collection." --Ingrid Rojas Contreras,
KQED's The Spine "These short stories are works of dark, dark magic
that skitter between worlds both recognizable and wholly new. Fans
of Hunt's work will revel in her first story collection, which
marries her signature flare for the fantastic with keen observation
and sharp prose . . . Grab your comforter and a flashlight for this
tour de force collection from one of our most inventive
storytellers." --Kirkus, starred review "Designed to jolt and
beguile . . . This excellent, inventive collection . . . is rife
with observant asides, sly humor, and surprises." --Publishers
Weekly, starred review "I was enamored with Mr. Splitfoot and
didn't think Samantha Hunt could top that book. I was wrong. The
stories in The Dark Dark keep getting better as the book goes on,
and by the end I was spellbound. You'd be hard-pressed to find
another author like Samantha Hunt. These stories explore not only
extraneous terrors (the dark night and the unknown horrors it
holds), but also the deep-down fears and savagery and strangeness
that exist beyond our understanding. Hunt mines the depths of our
subconscious inhumanity to reveal what connects us in ways we can't
imagine, and in her fantastic stories lie the real and familiar.
The darkest dark is not an outside entity, but our own humanity,
and nobody but Hunt can illuminate the shadowy corners of the soul
so well." --Rachel Kaplan, Avid Bookshop, Athens, GA "In stories
full of doubles and doppelgangers, splitting cells and shadowy
figures, Samantha Hunt evokes the uncanny in areas--suburbia,
motherhood, marriage--all too often made mundane by lesser writers.
In Hunt's singular voice, however, a wife's desire becomes a matter
of bodily metamorphosis; a dusty backroad becomes a portal between
worlds. Vivid and uncompromising, each story is unsettling--not
only to the characters within it, upended by a world gone sideways,
but to the reader, who recognizes in those characters her own weird
thoughts and longings. There it is, the strangeness at the center
of our lives, laid bare and fairly pulsing on the page." --Mairead
Small Staid, Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI
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