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The stories in MAYBE THIS IS WHAT I DESERVE dip their toes between sentiment and surrealism—a whirlpool swallows a boy in a family swimming pool, a girl befriends the lice her mother can’t afford to eradicate, a group of children form a secret society in the walls of a fast food play place. Using the logic of childhood across kids and adults alike, Leighty-Phillips builds a world filled with wonder and tells a new story of working-class, rural living.
Tucker Leighty-Phillips is the author of MAYBE THIS IS WHAT I DESERVE (Split/Lip Press, 2023). His work has been featured in The Adroit Journal, BOOTH, The Offing, Passages North, and elsewhere. You can find him online at TuckerLP.net or @thenurtureboy. He lives in Whitesburg, Kentucky.
Rachel Reeher is a writer, editor, and artist living in Appalachian Kentucky. She is a graduate of the MFA program at Arizona State University, and her work has been featured in Bat City Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Juked, Nimrod International, and elsewhere. Find her at rachelreeher.com
Jack Carneal is a writer living in Baltimore. DESTROY YOUR SAFE and HAPPY LIVES, his series of recollections of playing drums in a rock band was published in 2019. He teaches writing at Towson University.
Rhea Ramakrishnan is a writer and musician from Baltimore. Her writing has been published in a few literary magazines online and in print. Her band will probably play Frijoles again soon.