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praise
“Reading Jason Ockert’s debut collection, Rabbit Punches is like getting lost on a road trip: you start off fine, following your map, but still somehow wind up in a place you never saw coming. . . . the 13 stories are quirky and unsettling, full of unexpected turns. . . . Ockert’s characters seem to be longing for someone or something, and while you really pull for them to attain it, they all fall . . . just . . . short.” —Jerome Ludwig, Chicago Reader (Critic’s Choice)
“If you are interested only in conventional, time-proven storytelling, then Rabbit Punches is not for you. But if you like literary surprises, pleasantly weird characters, and plots that stand on their heads and even cartwheel, then check out this short story collection.” —The Bloomsbury Review
“Ockert’s debut features 13 stories, a host of quirky characters and strange plots grounded in a reality that is as disturbing as it is whimsical. In one story, a young boy feeds ticks into a sleeping child’s ear while a man prepares to arm wrestle Jesus. Though Ockert’s voice is still developing, his beautiful and unexpected imagery make him a writer to be watched.” —Publishers Weekly
about the author
Jason Ockert has won several national fiction awards and his stories have appeared in many journals including the Oxford American, Black Warrior Review, Indiana Review, Alaska Quarterly Review,Mid-American Review, McSweeney’s, The Iowa Review, Ecotone, and Witness.
