Haircuts for the Dead

by William Walsh

288 pages, Paperback

Published August 5, 2025

About the author

William Walsh is the author of The Poems and The Poets (both from Erratum Press), Forty-five American Boys (Outpost19), ON TV, Unknown Arts, Ampersand, Mass., Pathologies, Questionstruck, Stephen King Stephen King (all from Keyhole Press), and Without Wax: A Documentary Novel (Casperian Books).

His work has appeared in Annalemma, Artifice, Quick Fiction,, New York Tyrant, Caketrain, Juked, LIT, Rosebud, Quarterly West, Crescent Review, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, as well as anthologies like The &NOW Anthology: Best of Innovative Writing, Dzanc's Best of the Web, and New Micro: Norton Anthology of Exceptionally Short Fiction.

Reviews

[Craig Amason · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a believable story with characters that are not especially complicated but not one dimensional either. I really like the concept of a young woman cutting hair of the deceased at a funeral home, which leads to an interesting conclusion. What would a novel set in Georgia be without dysfunctional families, abusive husbands, unwed mothers, and criminals? There are two elements in this novel that I really appreciate: a librarian with a strong moral compass and a young woman who never gives up. Oh, and there are several direct and indirect nods to Flannery O'Connor, the best fiction writer Georgia has ever produced. Well done, Mr. Walsh!