In Skull Cathedral, Melissa Wiley pulls stories from the vestigial remnants of the creatures we were or could have become.
The appendix, pinky toes, tonsils, male nipples, wisdom teeth, and coccyx are starting points through which Wiley explores exaltation, eroticism, grief, and desire. Using the slow evolution and odd disintegration of vestigial organs to enter the braided stories of the lives we establish for ourselves, the people we grieve, and the mysteries of youth, memory, and longing, Wiley's lens is deeply feminist and compassionate.Autorentext
Melissa Wiley grew up on a small farm in Indiana. She earned her Master's in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University in Chicago, where she works as a freelance writer and editor. Primarily a writer of creative nonfiction, she is also the author of the personal essay collection Antlers in Space and Other Common Phenomena (Split Lip Press, 2017), and her work has appeared in many literary magazines, including the American Literary Review, Terrain.org, The Rumpus, Entropy, DIAGRAM, Phoebe, Waxwing, The Offing, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and PANK. She has been a member of the nonfiction programs of literary programs including Disquiet International in Lisbon, Portugal, and the Writer's Hotel in NYC. Currently, she is at work on a collection of short stories about extinction.