Working Titles
Working Title 9.1: The Quicksands of Toyne
In this darkly funny novella written and illustrated by Michael Dahlie, a young man finds himself in the small village of Toyne in 1974. There to oversee the semi-secret construction of a bomb shelter, he finds himself ensnared in the mounting tensions between competing factions involved in the project, befriends an eccentric variety of locals, and witnesses a series of unlikely events, including an unfortunate encounter with quicksand and a disastrous balloon outing. Recalling Edward Gorey's illustrated tales, but with a style all his own, Dahlie explores the quirks of small-town life with an edge.
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MICHAEL DAHLIE is the author of two novels and his short fiction has appeared in places like Harper’s, Electric Literature, and Ploughshares. He’s the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and a Whiting Award, and he received an NEA Literature Fellowship in 2020 for his illustrated work.
