An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories - Softcover

Andy Duncan’s short fiction has been honored with a Nebula Award, a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and three World Fantasy Awards. A native of Batesburg, S.C., Duncan has been a newspaper reporter, a trucking-magazine editor, a bookseller, a student-media adviser and, since 2008, a member of the writing faculty at Frostburg State University in the mountains of western Maryland, where he lives with his wife, Sydney.

Reviews of Andy Duncan's stories:

“Mesmerizing.” ― Ed Park, Los Angeles Times

“Duncan shows an hallucinatory grasp of idiom, of place-setting tact, an actor’s clarity at the rendering of voice.” ― John Clute, Washington Post Book World

“There’s no good name for what Andy Duncan does. . . . Duncan’s imagination runs through that fertile ground previously tilled by artists such as Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson and Poe.” ― Mark Hughes Cobb, The Tuscaloosa News

“Duncan’s short stories are marvels of setting and diction.” ― Michael Berry, San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

“Virtually unclassifiable . . . as powerful as any from Richard Powers or Rick Moody, T. C. Boyle or Steve Erickson ... a bizarre blend of Faulkner and Hemingway with touches of Tennessee Williams and Kurt Vonnegut.” ― Gary S. Potter, Charleston Post and Courier

“You’re likely to be laughing one moment, in awe the next and perhaps horrified before the tale is done. Few authors can pull off such delicate tonal balances in a short story, although William Faulkner achieved it more than once ... Will satisfy any reader brave enough to handle the strange places Duncan visits, the places between disturbing fantasy and ruthless reality.” ― John Mark Eberhart, The Kansas City Star

“Stunningly beautiful.” ― Sean Melican, BookPage

“Duncan is often most comfortable when working in the rich tradition of the American folk tale, crafting shrewd and funny stories of the intersection between the modern world and folk traditions and superstitions, particularly those of Appalachia and the American South, but ... he also has other strings to his bow, and a surprising depth of range as a stylist. ... Whichever critical pigeonhole you try to push Andy Duncan into, he remains one of the best and most original writers in the business.” ― Gardner Dozois

“Wonderful.” ― Nancy Kress · “Wonderfully demented.” ― Michael Swanwick · “Excellent.” ― Rich Horton · “Superlative.” ― Paula Guran · “Superb.” ― Jonathan Strahan · Brilliant.” ― Mary Anne Mohanraj · “Genius.” ― Nick Gevers · “Irresistible.” ― Ernest Hogan · “Knockout.” ― Tim Pratt · “Powerful.” ― Fiona Kelleghan · “Amazing.” ― Patrick O’Leary · “Unique.” ― Steven H. Silver

“Duncan has amassed a record of superior work out of all proportion to mere number of pages gathered between boards. He feels like an essential, towering part of the fantastika landscape, his every story eagerly awaited.” ― Asimov’s Science Fiction

“Fantasist and folklorist, he takes premises that are not made up, or at least are not made up by Andy Duncan . . . and creates new and strange stories out of them, which nevertheless tell the truth about the way things happened.” ― Christopher Cobb, Strange Horizons

“Duncan gives us the oldest form of fantasy, the legend, or folk tale: not just the childish folk legend of fireside entertainment but the one that has taken on enough mythic resonance to seem real.” ― Sherwood Smith, author of King’s Shield

“A new writer who, like Dylan, gathers up traditional materials and twists them into something new.” ― Paul McAuley, author of Austral