There Is Only Us
Winner of the 2022 Katherine Anne Porter Prize
“These stories get to the heart of human existence.”
— Daphne Kalotay in the Washington Post
“Wholly original and wildly contemporary, Zoe Ballering’s There Is Only Us moves from the COVID-19 pandemic’s Before Times to the After Times, every story a meticulous and emotionally resonant examination of a rapidly shifting world. Reading it feels like reading the world as it is unfolding, an Ovidian rendering of the cataclysmic changes of our time, with all the accompanying strangeness, pain, and exultation.”
— Polly Buckingham, author of The Expense of a View and series judge
The eight stories of speculative fiction in There Is Only Us explore themes of loneliness, connectedness, and selfhood. Each one is an act of intimacy—an altered world shown through the lens of a close relationship.
In a variety of forms—from a satirical retelling of Noah’s Ark to a sister drama revolving around naked mole rats—There Is Only Us presents a series of escalating scenarios, intimate and yet absurd, that pose the question, how much can you change and still be you?