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The Real Satyrs of Mt. Airy

$5.30

When librarian Talmadge Strong innocently misunderstands his neighbors' crude joke, he's mortified—but that's just the beginning of his confusion. As a mysterious fever takes hold and strange encounters multiply at the Mount Airy Library, Talmadge finds himself slipping between reality and myth, between the stacks of books and the forests of ancient legend. A chance meeting with "The Author" forces him to confront an impossible question: who do you want to be?

Told with surreal wit and playful erudition, The Real Satyrs of Mt. Airy is a fever dream of a story from writer Steph Rantz. Rantz weaves together local folklore, literary references, and contemporary life to create a dizzying meditation on identity, desire, and the thin boundaries between fiction and reality. With 25 years of experience working in a historical library collection, Rantz brings insider knowledge to this darkly comic tale of transformation.

The Real Satyrs of Mt. Airy is a work of short fiction. 36 pages. Books will ship in January.

When librarian Talmadge Strong innocently misunderstands his neighbors' crude joke, he's mortified—but that's just the beginning of his confusion. As a mysterious fever takes hold and strange encounters multiply at the Mount Airy Library, Talmadge finds himself slipping between reality and myth, between the stacks of books and the forests of ancient legend. A chance meeting with "The Author" forces him to confront an impossible question: who do you want to be?

Told with surreal wit and playful erudition, The Real Satyrs of Mt. Airy is a fever dream of a story from writer Steph Rantz. Rantz weaves together local folklore, literary references, and contemporary life to create a dizzying meditation on identity, desire, and the thin boundaries between fiction and reality. With 25 years of experience working in a historical library collection, Rantz brings insider knowledge to this darkly comic tale of transformation.

The Real Satyrs of Mt. Airy is a work of short fiction. 36 pages. Books will ship in January.

Steph Rantz was born in Mississippi but has lived most of his life in North Carolina. He is currently an ALM candidate in Harvard’s Creative Writing and Literature program, as well as a member of the Yale Writers Workshops of 2023 & 2024. He has works in Miracle Monocle, Prime Number Magazine and O. Henry Festival Stories. Two of his one-act plays were performed in Raleigh, NC. He has worked for 25 years in a historical collection for a municipal library.