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How to Disappear and Why: Essays
From acclaimed fiction writer Kyle Minor emerges a collection of essays all about disappearing.
Considering a wide scope of cultural, historical, spiritual, and philosophical figures and ideas, Minor assembles a collection of essays centered on the concept of disappearance. Considering subjects like ghosts (think Shakespeare and The Sixth Sense), lost temples, professional erasure and strategic exile, these essays dig deep into the cultural and historical archives of our civilization. Minor’s keen wit and perception ensure one readers will never forget this book.
Considering a wide scope of cultural, historical, spiritual, and philosophical figures and ideas, Minor assembles a collection of essays centered on the concept of disappearance. Considering subjects like ghosts (think Shakespeare and The Sixth Sense), lost temples, professional erasure and strategic exile, these essays dig deep into the cultural and historical archives of our civilization. Minor’s keen wit and perception ensure one readers will never forget this book.
- GenresEssaysNonfiction
260 pages, Paperback
First published February 24, 2026
About the author
Kyle Minor
18 books154 followersKyle Minor is the author of two collections of short fiction: Praying Drunk (2014) and In the Devil's Territory (2008). He is the winner of the 2012 Iowa Review Prize for Short Fiction and the Tara M. Kroger Prize for Short Fiction, one of Random House’s Best New Voices of 2006, and a three-time honoree in the Atlantic Monthly contest. His work has appeared online at Esquire, The Atlantic, Salon, and Tin House, and in print in The New York Times Book Review, The Southern Review, The Iowa Review, Best American Mystery Stories 2008, Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers: Random House Presents the Best New Voices of 2006, Forty Stories: New Voices from Harper Perennial, and Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013.
http://www.kyleminor.com
Praise for Praying Drunk:
“The stories [in Praying Drunk] span decades as they move from Kentucky to Haiti and points between, but they work in concert to slowly reveal the landscape of an emotionally desolate quasi-America sinking under the weight of its own faith. Minor writes beautifully about these ruined lives.” - The New York Times Book Review
“The beauty of Praying Drunk is that it transcends suffering to evoke the sublime.” - Los Angeles Times
“Nothing here is contained, the way a hit single on a record stands alone—characters recur, themes and forms are deepened and visited again, moments glimpsed earlier come back with haunting force. ” - The Atlantic
“[Kyle] Minor mauls you with his vicious prose, and then takes your hand and asks you to join him in a form of prayer.” - Electric Literature
“When the characters residing in Kyle Minor’s engrossing and lively Praying Drunk find a toehold on the good life, I hope that it’s autobiographical. When the characters find themselves enveloped in desperate situations, irreversible circumstances, and despair, I pray that it’s solely out of the writer’s imagination. These fine stories–up there with the best works of Padgett Powell, Donald Barthelme, and Robert Coover–never straddle a milquetoast fence: they’re extreme in humor, extreme in sorrowfulness, and 100% individually-wrapped masterpieces. I am haunted and mesmerized by this collection.”
- George Singleton, author of Stray Decorum
“Praying Drunk gets the whole thing down: the cosmic muck and the local glory, the big questions and the tiny lives, the bullies and the saviors, the screaming at the sky and the lights by the side of the road late at night on a long drive. I finished this book with my heart pounding and grateful, my coffee cold and my smile wide and crying like a baby.”
- Daniel Handler, author of Adverbs and The Basic Eight
“Watch Praying Drunk’s lovely, lonely people wrestle with Minor’s dark God and remember when you too tried to reason with Him and unravel His mysterious commands. These passionate tales, full of longing and daring and honesty, will disturb and inspire you.”
- Deb Olin Unferth, author of Revolution
“Similar to a great magic trick, the 13 stories in Minor’s (In the Devil’s Territory) latest lure reader investment with strong visuals while simultaneously pulling the rug out from underfoot with clever, literary sleights–of-hand. Though not necessarily linked in the traditional sense, there is a sequential order to the collection—ideas, locations, incidents, and characters echo as the volume chugs forward—and the result is an often dazzling, emotional, funny, captivating puzzle.” – Publishers Weekly
http://www.kyleminor.com
Praise for Praying Drunk:
“The stories [in Praying Drunk] span decades as they move from Kentucky to Haiti and points between, but they work in concert to slowly reveal the landscape of an emotionally desolate quasi-America sinking under the weight of its own faith. Minor writes beautifully about these ruined lives.” - The New York Times Book Review
“The beauty of Praying Drunk is that it transcends suffering to evoke the sublime.” - Los Angeles Times
“Nothing here is contained, the way a hit single on a record stands alone—characters recur, themes and forms are deepened and visited again, moments glimpsed earlier come back with haunting force. ” - The Atlantic
“[Kyle] Minor mauls you with his vicious prose, and then takes your hand and asks you to join him in a form of prayer.” - Electric Literature
“When the characters residing in Kyle Minor’s engrossing and lively Praying Drunk find a toehold on the good life, I hope that it’s autobiographical. When the characters find themselves enveloped in desperate situations, irreversible circumstances, and despair, I pray that it’s solely out of the writer’s imagination. These fine stories–up there with the best works of Padgett Powell, Donald Barthelme, and Robert Coover–never straddle a milquetoast fence: they’re extreme in humor, extreme in sorrowfulness, and 100% individually-wrapped masterpieces. I am haunted and mesmerized by this collection.”
- George Singleton, author of Stray Decorum
“Praying Drunk gets the whole thing down: the cosmic muck and the local glory, the big questions and the tiny lives, the bullies and the saviors, the screaming at the sky and the lights by the side of the road late at night on a long drive. I finished this book with my heart pounding and grateful, my coffee cold and my smile wide and crying like a baby.”
- Daniel Handler, author of Adverbs and The Basic Eight
“Watch Praying Drunk’s lovely, lonely people wrestle with Minor’s dark God and remember when you too tried to reason with Him and unravel His mysterious commands. These passionate tales, full of longing and daring and honesty, will disturb and inspire you.”
- Deb Olin Unferth, author of Revolution
“Similar to a great magic trick, the 13 stories in Minor’s (In the Devil’s Territory) latest lure reader investment with strong visuals while simultaneously pulling the rug out from underfoot with clever, literary sleights–of-hand. Though not necessarily linked in the traditional sense, there is a sequential order to the collection—ideas, locations, incidents, and characters echo as the volume chugs forward—and the result is an often dazzling, emotional, funny, captivating puzzle.” – Publishers Weekly
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 8, 2026
Once again Minor’s writing transcends the page and touches the soul.
April 8, 2026
Woof. Really strong collection on figuring it out as we go along.
May 9, 2026
"When you are not here with me your face fades from my memory and I fight, claw, shelter, swim against the fire, wind, rain, and sea to retrieve it. This evening my typing hands build a monument to it. But the statue stands still while the person proceeds, and the night is approaching, and you are not here with me."
Really fantastic collection of essays. I attempted to pick a favorite, but they all work so well together that I was unable. The Uber Diaries has probably stuck with me for the longest stretch of time.
It's been interesting to read through this knowing the author and seeing him frequently moving around campus in the same circles I choose to haunt, but I do believe that added to my reading experience. This entire collection is so incredibly personal and yet also referential, and I found myself with Wikipedia tabs open to further research a great deal of the stories and people mentioned. It was also a joy to see so many literary figures that I personally love mentioned throughout, especially Maggie Nelson and Anne Rice. All around, this was just a really fantastic read.
Thank you Evan for my copy and thank you Kyle for writing it! Maybe I should explore the creative nonfiction writing process a little bit more.
Really fantastic collection of essays. I attempted to pick a favorite, but they all work so well together that I was unable. The Uber Diaries has probably stuck with me for the longest stretch of time.
It's been interesting to read through this knowing the author and seeing him frequently moving around campus in the same circles I choose to haunt, but I do believe that added to my reading experience. This entire collection is so incredibly personal and yet also referential, and I found myself with Wikipedia tabs open to further research a great deal of the stories and people mentioned. It was also a joy to see so many literary figures that I personally love mentioned throughout, especially Maggie Nelson and Anne Rice. All around, this was just a really fantastic read.
Thank you Evan for my copy and thank you Kyle for writing it! Maybe I should explore the creative nonfiction writing process a little bit more.
April 21, 2026
Excellent!
April 5, 2026
Organized in five parts, this essay collection covers class, privilege, perseverance, creative blockages, meditations on nonfiction norms, loss, myths, profiles of historical figures, and more. From the first page about reasons to disappear to a moving notes section with mentions of a generous firefighter and the scarcest commodity in the world, I enjoyed being in the mind of a writer I've longed admired. "Hiding in Plain Sight" was a stunning essay with a chilling end that I couldn't stop thinking about for days. The precision of "The Uber Diaries" makes me think of the Tom Petty quote you reference later in "Junk Temples": "Don't bore us. Get to the chorus." I teach your Best of Brevity essay ("Suspended") every semester and was intrigued by the way you connect that material to the task of learning the culture of places and the idea that "literature should take on the trouble of the world." Thank you so much for writing this book.
March 25, 2026
I wrote this book.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews