Ghosts and Speculation: from The Ghost Variations

by Kevin Brockmeier

Ghost stories tap into our most primal emotions as they encourage us to confront the timeless What comes after death? Here, in tales that are by turn scary, funny, philosophic, and touching, you’ll find that question sharpened, split, reconsidered—and met with a multitude of answers. “Ghosts and Speculation,” an excerpt from Kevin Brockmeier’s extraordinary compendium of one hundred ghost stories, The Ghost Variations, discovers new ways of looking at who we are and what matters to us, exploring how mysterious, sad, strange, and comical it is to be alive—or, as it happens, not to be. A Vintage Short.

16 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 26, 2023

About the author

Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Brockmeier received his MFA from the Iowa Writer's Workshop in 1997. His stories have been featured in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, Crazyhorse, and The Georgia Review. He is the recipient of an O. Henry Award, the Nelson Algren Award, and a National Endowment of the Arts grant.