The Devil and the Dairy Princess by Pedro Ponce

What happens when the stories we've been told fail us? In ten provocative and unsettling tales, Pedro Ponce grapples with the human instinct to create a narrative out of disparate experiences.

The Devil and the Dairy Princess interrogates the power of stories to impact us for good or ill. We are all taught that love is destined to happen with our soul mate and that hard work eventually leads to success. But when faced with circumstances that no longer fit the chosen narrative, some protagonists cling to their outmoded stories with greater fervor, while others realize the old stories no longer suffice, so they choose to inhabit a new reality in stories yet to be told.

Perfect for any reader who enjoys literary realism or speculative fiction, The Devil and the Dairy Princess reveals the episodic history of humanity's romance with narrative, from first love to breakup to hopeful reconciliation.

Pedro Ponce's fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Alaska Quarterly Review, Gigantic, PANK, Copper Nickel, and other journals. His work has also been anthologized in Best Small Fictions 2019, New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction, and Boundaries Without: The Calumet Editions 2017 Anthology of Speculative Fiction. He is a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts fellow in creative writing. Ponce also teaches writing and literature at St. Lawrence University and is based in Canton, New York.

"I found The Devil and the Dairy Princess to be strikingly original. Each piece is distinctive, innovative, and full of fresh surprises. Yet the collection as a whole is cohesive in tone and voice, evocative, playful, haunting spaces both dreamy and nightmarish."-Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown, Blue Light Books Prize Judge, author of Interior Chinatown

"Ponce's stories are filled with vivid topographies, moving reveries, and quiet wonders. A little bit Calvino, and a little bit Borges, this collection is like a strange and haunting museum: the perfect place to get lost in for a while."-Lincoln Michel, author of The Body Scout