City of Weird

“If weird makes you think of funny and moving and disturbing and just plain odd in that wondrous Portland way, well, City of Weird is the book for you.”

– Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins

“City of Weird is a dark, imaginative and entertaining exploration of the bizarre, set against the backdrop of Bridgetown. From the career troubles of the undead to what’s lurking in the basement at Powell’s, this book is perfect for readers who want to know what truly keeps Portland weird.”

– Ian Doescher, Portland native and author of the William Shakespeare’s Star Wars series

"All stories are set in Portland, Oregon (you don’t need to know anything about Portland to enjoy them), and partake, to varying degrees, of the unique brand of weird that defines that city."

– John Keogh, Booklist

“City of Weird is everything I love about Portland: its next-gen sensibility, gleeful disregard for expectation, and that undercurrent of darkness which acts as foil to the eccentricity. I popped these stories like the handmade treats they are, and enjoyed every one.”

– Averil Dean, author of The Undoing and Alice Close Your Eyes

“Forget everything you know or think you know about Portland—all that twee Wes Anderson-y Portlandia crap—this is Portland re-imagined as exactly what it is: one more screen on which to project the American Nightmare.”

– Ben Loory, author of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day

“With work ranging from myths to folklore, science fiction and a surprising dark comedy of eco-feminist post-Fukushima revenge, Gigi Little has collected together a brilliant showcase of literary talent working in the Pacific Northwest.”

– Monica Drake, author of Clown Girl

“Nimbly spanning the gamut from heartfelt to absurd, lyrical to laugh-out-loud funny, City of Weird confirms the suspicion held by many a Portland resident that you don’t have to look far to find the fantastical. It’ll be a long time before I walk on Mount Tabor or wander Powell’s without looking over my shoulder.”

– Fonda Lee, author of Zeroboxer

“Like old pulp magazines, City of Weird runs the gamut from simply odd to straight-up horror, from comic to tragic, from short to long and, because it’s Portland, there’s even one graphic story (Jonathan Hill’s ‘How Do You Say Gentrification in Martian’). Whether you’re already a fan of the weird and horrific in fiction or just enjoy short fiction well-told, City of Weird will have something to satisfy you. Also to horrify you and make you laugh, maybe at the same time. If this is what the bumper stickers mean when they say ‘Keep Portland Weird,’ count me in.”

– Billie Bloebaum, bookseller, Third Street Books

• Authors include Rene Denfeld, author of The Enchanted, winner of the French Prix Award, The Oregonian's #1 book of the year, and finalist for the Flaherty First Novel Prize; Justin Hocking, author of The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld, an Oregon Book Award winner and B&N Discover Great New Writers selection; author and Future Tense publisher Kevin Sampsell; author and Propeller publisher Dan DeWeese; Mark Russell, author of God Is Disappointed in You; and Stefanie Freele, author of Surrounded by Water and Feeding Strays
• Powell's has chosen City of Weird as a Pick of the Month, Pick of the Season, POS placement for two weeks during Halloween, the Souvenir Table, Book Talks, and as a Staff Pick
• An estimated 2.3 million people live in Portland, Oregon; in 2014, an estimated 8.6 million visitors spent an overnight in Portland, and visitors that year spent an estimated $4.6 billion
• National media and TV viewers have shown a hunger for "Keep Portland Weird" coverage, including travel and pop-culture magazine articles, news articles on gentrification impacting Portland's artistic population, and Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen's "Portlandia"