April Ursula Fox (Educational Psychology), author and editor, has published the STTAR - Storytelling with Tarot Anthology. Also available for digital download through Avantpop Publishing. This project was supported in part by the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV.
STTAR is a collection of short stories by Las Vegas writers, created using the Tarot. Each story is the result of a Tarot reading. Stories average 6000 words each, and journey into different literary styles, approaches, voices, themes, characters, dynamics, conflicts, intersectionality, positionality, and artistic propositions, adding up to 303 pages of unforgettable tales.
With original short stories created by a diverse group of 12 Las Vegas writers, in this anthology the reader navigates through fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, science-fiction, romance, and urban fantasy.
Meet the writers and their stories:
- Andrew Romanelli explores a surreal paradigm clash between our obliviously unjust society and the case of an inmate who must survive incarceration while the structures of the world tremble.
- Stephi Blue takes us by the hand into the dynamics of a couple who questions the nature and value of their relationship in comparison to their individual dreams, desires, and growth.
- Chris Mendoza uncovers a hidden layer of social manipulation within a story of passionate love crushes, affection for dogs and closer social circles, and low motivation to perform boring everyday work.
- Emily Ajir transcends time and the ages to expose, through a story of resistance and fight, ever-damaging colonialist and imperialist culture-ripping mechanisms still at work today.
- Harmoni Wallace exposes the unsuspectingly deceiving nature of artificial intelligence within an uniquely formatted story that is displayed over the screens and code structures of technological devices promised to be beneficial to human health needs.
- Jeff Grindley reveals the very unexpected, obscure, and perhaps unholy way that a young teenage girl reacts to confinement, emotional instability and loss, searching for answers in realms darker than our own.
- Jennifer Battisti takes a surreal life-long road-trip through magnificently described desert landscapes and ghost towns, following a journey of grief and forced maturity of a young girl facing challenges in her family.
- Lila Brissette describes the curious, mysterious, and potentially maddening case of a prize-winning journalist who is challenged to cover a story that will change their lives, and their soul, forever.
- Melissa Gill sets an unsettling tone to a nail-biting courtroom thriller exposing the dubious character of a small town USA case accusing a mother of committing a crime that, if condemned, will estrange her from her son for the rest of their lives.
- Mordecai Alba opens the mind, heart, and soul of a character that navigates through emotionally uncertain friendship building, a potential love triangle, and self-reflection in discovery of a hidden potential to make a lot of greed-evoking cash.
- Najee Jamerson enchants our senses by taking us to a not-so-distant world of kings, queens, and a sacred healer that is faced with a life-threatening decision when their traditions don’t seem sufficient to overcome a sudden, mysterious illness.
