Winner of the 2019 Sonder Press Chapbook Competition, Jessica Hollander’s Mythical Places is a stunning collection of six thoughtfully wrought stories. Hollander’s prose is masterful, delicate and deliberate, rendering these narratives with both precision and grace. Deeply resonant, Mythical Places is a subtle yet incandescent meditation on the power of place, and the profound impact its reverberation has throughout the lives we build ourselves.

“Hollander’s debut collection effectively fuses the common (childhood adventures, unhappy adults) with the bizarre (a grandmother obsessed with buttons, a gym full of people refusing to wear clothes) to create an intriguing volume. . . . The details in these stories ring true and are recognizable amid the insanity. A potent work from a strong new literary voice.”—Publishers Weekly starred review

"This collection offers a pyrotechnic array of adventurous language and dashing variations in structure combined with absolute lucidity. The fireworks serve to illuminate rather than obscuring these finely tuned stories. These are human tales of vigorously individual characters living with intensity. Discombobulation plays a roll, but never ennui. The author’s ear for revealing dialogue and double-edged humor ground these stories in a reality worth enduring. The characters connect despite suspicion and betrayal, beyond blood, circumstance or embarrassment at their own ridiculous humanity. Each piece is powered by a deep, slow boiling jubilation in the moment-to-moment, line-by-line fact of taking breath.”—Katherine Dunn author of Geek Love