We’re very pleased to welcome a Skylark alum, Abby Manzella, back to the shop to celebrate the publication of her stunning debut collection of short stories, Ripples into the Wild.

Whether real or imagined, a lake monster born from a campfire story begins Ripples into the Wild. That monster grows more terrible from story to story: a teenager inexplicably goes missing; an entire town's lights go out; sicknesses and climate shifts drastically alter everyone's world; and people, nonhuman animals, and the environment are forced to adjust or die. What have we done to our world and to each other? Do these choices lead only to darkness or new possibilities? From pebbles dropping into the water to their ripples reaching ever outward, Abby Manzella's stories shake us out of the ordinary with the pulse and threat of life lost and found.

Abby will be in conversation with another of Skylark’s favorite authors, Dr. Nancy West.

Abby Manzella, a Pushcart Prize winner, is the author of the short story collection, Ripples into the Wild, forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in February 2027. Her academic book, Migrating Fictions: Gender, Race, and Citizenship in U.S. Internal Displacements (OSU Press), won the Society for the Study of American Women Writers Book Award. Originally from Pennsylvania, she now lives in Missouri, where she teaches at Truman State University. Previously an Artist-in-Residence at Plyspace in Indiana, a Resident Fellow at Arizona State University's Institute for Humanities Research, and a scholarship recipient to attend the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Abby's stories, essays, interviews, and reviews have been published by places such as The Threepenny Review, Pleiades, Literary Hub, and The Boston Globe.