Jesse Ball is an American novelist and poet. He has published novels, volumes of poetry, short stories, and drawings. His works are distinguished by their spare style and have been compared to those of Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino.
Original publication
2026
Average rating
—
Total reads logged
0
Opening Excerpt
From the storyI live with my grandmother in a town called Laskerville. The town was created a hundred years ago when they dammed the Sassusquanatt River. It’s a pretty town—just what you would think. What does it look like? Out the front door of my grandmother’s house you can see clear up the riverbed ten miles to the edifice of the dam, rising pale and inarguable like a cliff. And below it all these ridiculous lives in a deep ravine.
Story Vibe & Style Profile
Emotional Weight
3.2 / 5
Bittersweet
Narrative Pacing
2.0 / 5
Deliberate
Literary Style
3.7 / 5
Contemporary Literary
Speculative / Reality
4.0 / 5
Speculative / Fabulist
Appearances
Cover
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine February 2024 · Feb 1, 2024
About the Author
Discussion
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