Practice for Becoming a Ghost

by Patrick Thomas Henry

In these sixteen fabulist stories, debut author Patrick Thomas Henry treads the line between the real and the fantastic, conjuring the ghosts that haunt both our past and our present. A father whispers to his dead wife as his daughters row off course and their boat begins to capsize. Staff writers at a failing publication watch as the people around them are slowly transformed into magpies, cardinals, and mourning doves. A woman summons stories from the textures of bird seed, feathers, nests, and craft-store yarn. In the title story, a lawyer falls in love with a graphic designer who asks him to pretend that she is invisible to everyone but him.

From Washington, D.C. to rural Pennsylvania to the nineteenth-century Irish countryside, the stories in this collection grapple with grief and the fundamental truth that the act of living is always, inevitably, practice for becoming a ghost.

Genres: Short Stories

244 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2024

About the author

Patrick Thomas Henry is the author of the short story collection PRACTICE FOR BECOMING A GHOST (Susquehanna University Press, 2024), which was long-listed for The Story Prize and won the 2022 Northeast Modern Language Association Creative Writing Book Award. He is also the author of THE WORK OF THE LIVING: MODERNISM, THE ARTIST-CRITIC, AND THE PUBLIC CRAFT OF CRITICISM. His fiction and essays have appeared in West Branch online, Carolina Quarterly, LandLocked, Lake Effect, Passages North, North Dakota Quarterly, and many others. His work was also selected for inclusion in BEST MICROFICTION 2020. He is the fiction and poetry editor for the journal Modern Language Studies. He currently teaches creative writing at the University of North Dakota. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram @Patrick_T_Henry or online at patrickthomashenry.com.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Way to go, Dr. Henry :’) I would say any book that makes me feel like I might cry in front of my 9th graders is a 5-star read.

[Glenn E. Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of unique of short stories! Each story has a different flavor, which keeps the collection fresh. My favorite story is "After the Mirages".

[Kim Swartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of 16 stories. Some are only a few pages while the longest is 39. The specifics of each one are distinct and individually stand on their own. Ultimately they all seem to ask such universal questions as “Why are we here?”, “How did this happen?” and“Is this all there is?”.

The writing is quite beautiful if a little superfluous at times. The author commands a much larger vocabulary than I do. The stories made me think. They are a unique compilation of fairytale and ghost story. Promising debut.

[Sarah Golden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal work by Dr. Henry, have been chipping away at this one all semester and finally finished! "Him in the Gorse" was definitely my favorite, with "Of the Throat" and "Creatures of the Deep" being close seconds, but every single one of these stories is worth the read! Common themes among them, but these are no common stories by any means.

[Yousseif Abdellatif]

Short and honest: Practice for Becoming a Ghost is a gripping mess with a great first half. What worked: the setup is fast, tense, and full of good, creepy details. What didn't: the second half repeats itself and the villain gets less scary with every scene. Recommend for thriller fans who love a strong opening, skip for anyone who needs a payoff that matches the buildup.

[Robert Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a nice collection of fun short stories. You'll definitely never look at birds the same way.