Vanishing Acts

by Joshua Grasso

246 pages, Paperback

Published December 16, 2025

About the author

English professor at a small regional university in Oklahoma, with a PhD in British Literature from Miami University. Teach classes in British Literature (esp. Shakespeare to 18th c.), the Humanities, writing, science fiction & fantasy, and comics. Have written 5 novels in-between grading, raising two boys, and rescuing dozens of stray cats from the wilds of Ada, Oklahoma. :)

Reviews

[Sam Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection contains science fiction, fantasy, and suspense offerings full of skill and the imagination one might expect from a writer of Grasso’s training. I’ve often been impressed by how prolific this author is, considering that he is a full-time professor of literature with a family. In this volume, I especially enjoyed the title story “Vanishing Acts,” which is a unique take on astral projection; “Flight Risk” is a fantasy about a young teacher who desperately wants to do well during her big interview, but must hide her…ahem, medical condition; in “The Pushback” Elisa thinks everyone has a hidden talent like hers; and I loved the characterization and twists of “Gifted and Talented.”