Staff Pick
Effortlessly laying bare the intersections of oppression — Calvin Gimpelevich's Invasions conjures visions and possibilities that liberate even as they ache. Every story is a gem, but "Rent, Don't Sell" and "You Wouldn't Have Known" were so good they hurt: exploring gender, bodies, and minds in bold and groundbreaking ways. Recommended By Cosima C., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Fiction. LGBTQIA Studies. 2019 Lambda Literary Award finalist for Transgender Fiction. A body-swapping personal trainer and her trans girlfriend turn to a life of crime. A man mourning his dead lover becomes trapped in the mind of the leader of a bathhouse raid. A trans man, recovering from top surgery paid for with a stolen credit card, finds strange connection and condemnation among his fellow patients. The fifteen stories in this debut fiction collection from author Calvin Gimpelevich move in the borderlands between realism and surrealism, investigating gender, class, relationships, and the powers we still hold within spaces of powerlessness. They articulate the invasions we commit, the invitations we receive to cross over into another person's world.
Review
"This is one of the most gripping, crisp, and moving collections of short fiction I have read in a long time." Casey Plett
Review
"In Invasions, Calvin Gimpelevich writes fearlessly about trans and queer bodies, sex, and the possibilities of gender. In these edgy, strange stories, characters transform, transition, and transgress to discover themselves and, sometimes, each other." Carter Sickels
Review
"Flipping between speculative worlds deeply rooted in realness and emotion and more familiar landscapes that tip on the edges of personal apocalypses, Gimpelevich's writing is strong and sure, taking us places we really haven't been." Michelle Tea
About the Author
Calvin Gimpelevich was born in San Francisco and has lived around the West Coast. A recipient of awards from Artist Trust, Jack Straw Cultural Center, the Speculative Literature Foundation, 4Culture, CODEX/Writer's Block, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, his work has appeared in Electric Literature, Plentitude, cream city, THEM, and other publications. He has cats.