Gravity Changes

by Zach Powers

Gravity Changes is a collection of fantastical, off-beat stories that view the quotidian world through the lens of the absurd. Set in a surreal, fictional world that is populated by strange, fascinating characters—children who defy gravity, a man who marries a light bulb, the Devil and his ex-wife—these stories take wide steps outside of reality, finding new ways to illuminate truth.

Zach Powers lives and writes in Savannah, Georgia. The co-founder of the literary arts nonprofit Seersucker Live, his news writing for television has won an Emmy Award, and he is currently a columnist for Savannah Morning News.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

Published May 16, 2017

About the author

Zach Powers is the author of the forthcoming novel The Migraine Diaries (JackLeg 2026), the novel First Cosmic Velocity (Putnam 2019), and the story collection Gravity Changes (BOA Editions 2017). His writing has been featured by American Short Fiction, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. He serves as Artistic Director for The Writer’s Center and Poet Lore, America's oldest poetry magazine. Originally from Savannah, Georgia, he now lives in Arlington, Virginia. Get to know him at ZachPowers.com.

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many books and stories can feel derivative from another source, but that is never the case with "Gravity Changes." Each story contains fantastic(al) world-building, populated with characters I wish I knew in real life. With such a varied breadth of characters and worlds, different stories will resonate with different readers, and the intensity with which those resonate more than compensates for the stories that feel more nebulous. All are written with outstanding imagination, and the three below impacted me the most.

"A Tinkle is the Sound of Two Things Meeting but Failing to Merge" was a work of pure beauty. Sad, strange, and purposefully anti-climactic, like a dubstep song in which the bass never drops. When perusing the book in the store, this collection of vignettes convinced me to buy it.

"Joan Plays Power Ballads with Slightly Revised Lyrics" was a character driven piece in which the eponymous character was just as interesting as the narrator who stays by Joan and supports her mission but always stays in the background. Really connected with this one, as someone involved in the arts.

"Sleeping Bears" was so good that even if this was the only story I liked in the entire collection, the book would have been 100% worth purchasing. It explores the way deception, guilt, and scruples intertwine with each other in our everyday lives.

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I didn't exactly know what "fabulist fiction" was until I started reading this book. Even fuller disclosure: The author is a friend of mine, and I've always looked up to him as a writer.

Gravity Changes feeds you some pretty tall (and fabulist) tales--children who can fly, girls born with their brothers' heads on their shoulders, a man who marries a lightbulb, magical cabins accessible only underwater, etc. But as tall as the tales are, each story read like they were built off of a kernel of capital T-truth. Sometimes sad and sometimes scary, but always making me stop and reconsider the real world honesty hidden behind the fabulist characters and plot.

Favorite stories: Joan Plays Power Ballads with Slightly Revised Lyrics, Children in Alaska, Cockpuncher, When as Children We Acted Memorably, The Loneliness of Large Bathrooms, Little Gray Moon and Sleeping Bears.

[Annie Bomke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this collection! I loved the randomness of topics, like advice on how to find shark teeth on the beach (something everyone should know), and the random humor of moments like in the story where a man marries a light bulb, the light bulb asks him why they don't go out anymore, if he's embarrassed to be seen with her, and he replies, "You don't fit in the car." :) There's something very Kafkaesque about these stories. They're otherworldly, yet there's also something very human about them that makes them relatable and moving.

And how can you not love a book with a short story called "Cockpuncher?"

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to fabulist fiction and short stories late(r) in life, and am thankful to Karen Russell and Aimee Bender for being the gateway drugs to this proclivity. Powers has earned a coveted spot on their shelf. "Gravity Changes" tackles the everyday and the absurd in equal measure and with such clear, precise language that it's easy to be blindsided by the emotional gut-punch in some of these stories. "Little Gray Moon," one of my favorites in the collection, made me a little misty-eyed in the way it captures the surreal and very human weirdness of longing and loneliness.

(The cover art by another favorite artist, Matt Kish, is an added bonus!)

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was kind of luke-warm about this collection, but I really liked Sleeping Bears. It was the longest story in the collection and it was the most interesting to me.
There was also a story that while I was reading wasn't all that enchanted but I kept thinking about it afterwards - about some children who found a portal to another world in the bottom of their pool. I really felt for our main character who was going along with his friends but didn't really get what they were getting...didn't feel the same thing they were feeling, and knew it, but still wanted to belong.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I have to admit that this star rating is as much for the book as it is the author. His personal influence on the writing scene in Savannah, GA and on my own life/writing is indelible.

Besides the masterful use of language and Powers' ability to make the ethereal and odd seem natural, his stories have heart.

You must read this book, and if you get the chance, meet this person.

[In · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these are goofy, but when you see the metaphors you feel the connection. "The Eating Habits of Famous Actors" is so clever. The way he picks out trivialities of our existence and shows us the absurdity of them, reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld.

[Jeff Garrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting stories that stretch the mind. At times i felt like I was in a dream. Each story is unique and surprise twists occur when least expected. I read the first stories a year ago, and just came back and finished the last half of the book this weekend. Be prepared to be surprised.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished reading this and I'm going to read it again, now! Great writing and fantastic stories. What an imagination!!

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wildly creative and much fun to read.

[Gabe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed many of the stories in this book, but I have discovered that I don't love the short-story genre. So, about as good as I'd expect but it didn't totally grip me.

[Anne Carroll]

Only partially read. A collection of short, strange, disturbing stories.

[Ann Theis]

Kirkus