Stella Maris

A LIT HUB MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2019

"Poignant and potent."
—Publishers Weekly

"Interconnected tales full of lust, longing and death. . . . Carroll's spare but evocative prose casts a haunting spell." —Shelf Awareness

"[Carroll] says out loud what people are thinking, doing, or long to do. His stories are raw, rare, beautiful. They remind me of Capote at the height of his powers, or a gay Eve Babitz. In Stella Maris, Carroll swims way out past the buoys and comes back triumphant." —Leo Racicot, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

"An alluring, unapologetically audacious collection . . . Carroll calls just enough attention to each of these characters before they quickly disappear, leaving their fate and purpose to the reader's imagination." —Edge Media Network

“[Michael Carroll’s] new collection follows a similar path [to his last] but presents work that is more challenging, yet just as good. . . . [It] is varied enough to offer a unique gem in each story.” —queerguru

"[In] one of the most eagerly awaited books of the year [set in] the ‘beautiful town, Key West, the last bastion, the place of the just-misfits,’ award-winning gay writer Michael Carroll makes the political personal.” —Pride 2019 Reading List, Peach ATL

"Marvelous. Michael Carroll's stories, keenly—even cruelly—observant, occupy the verges of love and death where the truest and most recklessly aware emotions abide."
—Joy Williams

“Michael Carroll openly insists that American manners make way for the unsayable, showing us over and over that our reticence got us into trouble in the first place. His superb Key West stories are the florid mirror of our national evasions, doubling their comic revelations into pathos, and catching us unexpectedly reflected in the erotic trance of self-invention.”
—Manuel Muñoz, author of What You See in the Dark and The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue

“Michael Carroll is one of my favorite writers—now more than ever, the grace with which he refuses to lie is a rare form of joy. He is ruthless, funny, clear-eyed, and dangerous in a way that America should thank its lucky stars for.”
—Zachary Lazar, author of Vengeance and winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters John Updike Award

“Stella Maris is a collection of deliciously uncategorizable, candid, and wise stories.”
—Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men

“No polite, recycled moves. Mess, tenderness, lust, rage, bewilderment: all here, and all-the-way alive. Michael Carroll is writing at the height of his powers and Stella Maris is a major achievement.”
—Paul Lisicky, author of The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship

“Michael Carroll writes with fierce originality about sex between men, love between men and women, and issues of class and money. In this new collection his sparkling sentences, unflinching gaze, and wit and wisdom stake out new territory for us to explore and enjoy.”
—Sheila Kohler, author of Once We Were Sisters and Cracks