The chapbook “Becoming Roadkill” centers pavement pizza, run-overs, highway pancakes. These stories were born from the pines, coal seams, and industry infrastructure of Appalachia. I found carcasses along the roads to be reminders of our painful past, the danger of our current situation, and the sweet potential of renewal as we live through an extinction event. Characters include a group of gentle souls stealing squashed animals to pose as their hunting trophies, storm-chasers falling in love, and twins discovering trailer full of livestock abandoned in a field.

Becoming Roadkill is published, printed, and hand-bound by Red Bird Chapbooks. About the collection, they wrote: “Young children of drug addicted parents find a brood of starving pigs. A team of professionals struggle in a storm. A lonely intern becomes the animals he studies. A creature waits in the woods for someone to come. These dark tales from James Cato examine the necessity for connections with each other and the natural world in order to survive whatever may come.“

Pick up a copy now for only $14! Thank you for your support of small writers and small presses!

I hope you enjoy.