Centrifugal: Unstories
Matt Burnside
Whiskey Tit, 2024

I consider myself one of the world’s foremost Matthew Burnside scholars and I want everyone to read him because he’s brilliant. The king of bittersweet, his latest collection is another love letter to the lonely that uses familiar Burnside paradigms of games, childhood, nautili, and digital universes. He experiments with the form in new and exciting ways that mirror modern or near-future life but also has enough ‘traditional’ structure to appeal to a wide audience. If you love stories that break your heart but also somehow lift you up out of that melancholy, you need more Burnside in your life.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: The world exists to break to your heart.

Some deal with this fact by breaking it back. Others just end up breaking themselves.

A few, who are somehow able to accept what’s broken, may find a way to be grateful to it.

These people are called fools.