All the Hometowns You Can’t Stay Away From

In her debut collection of fourteen stories, two of which have never been seen before, Izzy Wasserstein pries the lid off fourteen different worlds from an already impressive short fiction career. In these pages, you’ll meet ne’er-do-wells and orphans, investigators and revolutionaries, diplomats and doctoral students. Wasserstein has a gift for putting her finger on the meaty parts of grief, the catalysts of change, and the pain points of community.

What others are saying:

“Inventive, fascinating, and deeply moving, this collection will grab you by the throat and then tuck you into bed with infinite tenderness. I want to listen to Izzy Wasserstein tell stories all day and all night.”
—Annalee Newitz, Lambda Award-winning author of Autonomous and Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age

“Across every genre and tone, Izzy Wasserstein imbues her stories with a unique power: to reach through the page and into your chest, where they hold your heart as if it’s the last of its kind. These are gorgeously-told queer tales of grief and love, fear and wonder, for people and for entire worlds, and they give comfort and strength to the exact parts of our souls that this moment in history relentlessly erodes. Dress your wounds with these words. Drink up their warmth in the dead of winter. They’ll take care of you.”
—Elly Bangs, author of Unity

“Izzy Wasserstein’s stories wrestle with ideas of home, grief, and apocalyptic violence with a stunning urgency and clarity of vision. At every turn, we see people at their worst and trying to do their best. Her work is less a wake-up call than a tornado siren; it calls us home even as it reminds us, insistently, that home is not always a haven.”
—Nino Cipri, author of Finna and Defekt

“Izzy Wasserstein writes brilliantly about loss, revolution, change, and community—and I am so glad to see her short work collected in this exciting new book from Neon Hemlock. In All the Hometowns You Can’t Stay Away From, Wasserstein explores trans and queer experiences in semi-familiar landscapes—some of them Midwestern, others unfolding in spaces and times far away. She has a memorable literary voice, and her stories of alienation and survival will haunt and sustain me for years to come.”
—R.B. Lemberg, author of The Four Profound Weaves

“Izzy Wasserstein has a postapocalyptic sensibility. Her debut collection All the Hometowns You Can’t Stay Away From contains many stories that deal with heart- and gut-wrenching destruction and loss, but this makes the shards of hope gleam all the brighter. Not everything is gone, and some things worth fighting for still remain. Izzy Wasserstein has an impressive range from epic fantasy to scientific mystery, but the emotional core of these stories is invariably resonant. All the Hometowns You Can’t Stay Away From will remain timely for the foreseeable future, and help guide readers through moments of despair to hard-fought joy; it belongs on your bookshelf too.”
—Bogi Takács, author of The Trans Space Octopus Congregation

“Wasserstein’s stories offer a finely-honed sense of place, precise and evocative writing, and a beautiful, sometimes chilling, exploration of what it means to be complicated and human.”
—Kate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun

“Above all, the multifaceted portrayals of gender are a consistent strength throughout, rendering trans and nonbinary characters with vitality and nuance.”
—Publishers Weekly