The Villagers

Voted a 2022 Top Notable Indie Book by Shelf Media! A master of disguise tries to seduce the sun... a horticultural club tours a dream-garden… a fishwife is serenaded by a severed head … a lunar king appeals to the people of earth one last time… These are a few of the characters you'll meet in this collection of 37 tales, each conjured by Derek Owens in response to the surreal art of Caroline Golden. You are formally invited to enter this enchanted everwhen: an eclectic gallery of whimsical souls; a chorus of voices fanciful, dark, and strange.

Voted a 2022 Top Notable Indie Book by Shelf Media! A master of disguise tries to seduce the sun... a horticultural club tours a dream-garden… a fishwife is serenaded by a severed head … a lunar king appeals to the people of earth one last time… These are a few of the characters you'll meet in this collection of 37 tales, each conjured by Derek Owens in response to the surreal art of Caroline Golden. You are formally invited to enter this enchanted everwhen: an eclectic gallery of whimsical souls; a chorus of voices fanciful, dark, and strange.

Derek Owens has published poetry, fiction, and lyric essay in dozens of journals. He is the author of Memory's Wake (Spuyten Duyvil Press), a retelling of his mother's childhood trauma growing up in the burnt-over district of central New York state, as well as a number of academic articles and books. He recently completed an MFA in creative practice in Berlin and works in a range of media; his art can be found at derekowens.net. He continues to teach at St. John's University, where he's been a professor since 1996.