A Terrifying Brush with Optimism: New and Selected Stories

by Brian Leung

Overview

A collection of new and selected works from Lambda Literary Award and Asian-American Literary Award winner Brian Leung.

In a cultural moment where folks are stripped of the their dignity or shed it willingly, the figures in this book wonder at the utility of maintaining their own. There's a touch of Hamlet's question in there along with some I Ching. Can monkeys pray? Are we better off living in the real world or a speculative one?

Through an essay, a novella, and short and flash fiction pieces, A Terrifying Brush with Optimism is at once leaping, thoughtful, diverse, comic, and brooding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781956046328
Publisher:	Sarabande Books
Publication date:	05/13/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Brian Leung, author of All I Should Not Tell, Ivy vs. Dogg: With a Cast of Thousands!, World Famous Love Acts, Lost Men, and Take Me Home, is a past recipient of the Lambda Literary Outstanding Mid-Career Prize. Other honors include the Asian-American Literary Award, Willa Award, and the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. Brian’s fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared widely in outlets like Gulf Coast, Story, The Barcelona Review, Crab Orchard Review, Indiana Review, and elsewhere. He is a professor at Purdue University.

Editorial Reviews

Past Praise for Brian Leung’s World Famous Love Acts: 

“Each story asks a pointedly difficult question: What happens when we let our most coveted relationships deteriorate under the stress of plain ol’ everyday living? Leung reveals a plethora of fascinating answers with beautiful, concise prose and unwavering empathy.”

—Entertainment Weekly  

“In his first book, a collection of remarkable short stories, Leung depicts a dispersion of townsfolk. . . .Each character’s intimate tale hints at traversing spaces—physical, emotional, or cultural—and yet many are connected to the simple, almost mystical town of Blue Falls.”

—Out Magazine

“Brian Leung's writing is exquisite. . . deeply felt and spiritually high, with dead-on depictions of the world as it is and people coping such as they can.”
—Marianne Rogoff, SFGATE

From the Publisher