Demons in the Spring

By Joe Meno

Demons in the Spring is a collection of twenty short stories by Joe Meno, author of the smash hits The Boy Detective Fails and Hairstyles of the Damned, with illustrations by twenty artists from the fine art, graphic art, and comic book worlds--Todd Baxter, Kelsey Brookes, Ivan Brunetti, Charles Burns, Nick Butcher, Steph Davidson, Evan Hecox, Kim Hiorthoy, Paul Hornschemeier, Cody Hudson, Caroline Hwang, kozyndan, Geoff McFetridge, Anders Nilsen, Laura Owens, Archer Prewitt, Jon Resh, Jay Ryan, Souther Salazar, Rachell Sumpter, and Chris Uphues.


Oddly modern moments which occur in the most familiar of public places, from offices to airports to schools to zoos to emergency rooms: a young girl who refuses to go anywhere unless she’s dressed as a ghost; a bank robbery in Stockholm gone terribly wrong; a teacher who’s become enamored with the students in his school’s Model United Nations club; a couple affected by a strange maladya miniature city which has begun to develop in the young woman’s chest, these inventive stories are hilarious, heartbreaking, and unusual.


Joe Meno is the best-selling author of the novels Hairstyles of the Damned, The Boy Detective Fails, How the Hula Girl Sings, and Tender As Hellfire. He was the winner of the 2003 Nelson Algren Award for short fiction and is a professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago.

*A portion of the author's proceeds from the book will go directly to benefit 826 CHICAGO, a nonprofit tutoring center, part of the national organization of tutoring centers with branches in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle.*

• Language: English
• Publisher: Akashic Books
• Release date: Sep 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9781936070879

Joe Meno

Joe Meno is the author of over five novels such as The Great Perhaps,which was a winner of the Great Lakes Book Award for Fiction in 2009 and a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice. His short fiction has been published by the likes of McSweeney's, Witness and TriQuarterly. He is a professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago.

Reviews for Demons in the Spring

[bellawether · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

All it took was to see the spine of this beautifully crafted book of short stories on the library shelf and I was sold. Picking it up and seeing its beautiful design confirmed that is was something special. Hoping the writer was up to the challenge I checked it out and took it home. He did. The tempo and of his style reminded me of the Band King Missile, and the unique characters stay with you long after the book has been closed.

[cait815 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I can no longer say "I'm not really a fan of short stories but..." I've just read too many great stories lately for that statement to apply.

I absolutely loved this book. My favorite stories were The Unabomber and My Brother and Art School is Boring So, but honestly most of them were fantastic.