Author Description

<b>In Joe Baumann's newest collection <i>Where Can I Take You When There's Nowhere To Go</i>, queer men explore their sense of who they are and what they want, often in worlds that are tilted askew from what we might expect.</b> <p>Thirteen surreal short stories utilize the strange and the bizarre as a backdrop for explorations of loneliness, queer coming-of-age, self-discovery, and loss. In "We Adore These Bodies Until They Are Gone," people evaporate when suffering isolation and directionless; in "Happy Birthdays," characters transform into different ages when they consume particular kinds of cake; and in the titular story, a pair of lonely teenagers come together at a party after one of them gifts the other with a small cloud he has spun out of his own hands. <p>Baumann's tender vignettes of love, anger, grief, and desire are a stunning ode to the places and people that can give us solace within an absurd and chaotic world.</p>