World Fantasy, Locus, and Mythopoeic Award-winning author and poet Theodora Goss was born in Hungary, and spent her childhood in various European countries before her family moved to the United States. Goss is the author of the novel trilogy The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman, and The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl. Her short story and poetry collections include In the Forest of Forgetting, Songs for Ophelia, and Snow White Learns Witchcraft. She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Crawford, and Shirley Jackson Awards, as well as on the Tiptree Award Honor List. Goss's work has also been translated into fifteen languages. Currently, she teaches at several creative writing workshops, and in written, oral, and visual rhetoric at Boston University. Visit her at theodoragoss.com.

Literary Hub Notable Small Press Books

[STARRED REVIEW] "Each story in Goss's (The Collected Enchantments) perfectly titled collection features stamps from fantastical worlds they passed through on the way to readers. They may have paused in literary realms such as Oz, Narnia, or Camelot. Others spent time with Mary Shelley, Edgar Rice Burroughs, or Jorge Luis Borges. The rest may display their travels less flamboyantly, but they perhaps skirted lands created by Robin McKinley, Patricia A. McKillip, or Ursula K. Le Guin. Though many of the stories focus on academia or research, this is fully entangled with their emotional cores. For instance, 'Beautiful Boys' is a research project into aliens that also explores the dangerous allure of doomed relationships, and 'Come See the Living Dryad' haunts archives and medical colleges solving a cold case involving a sideshow dryad while examining family ties, privilege, and disability. While 'England Under the White Witch' brings magic, wolves, and eternal winter to Europe, other stories, such as 'Dora/Dóra, ' are more quietly speculative, in this case following a girl who corresponds with the self she left behind when she immigrated to the U.S."
--Library Journal

[STARRED REVIEW] "Alluring, unforgettable... Letters from an Imaginary Country is an invigorating short story collection that fleshes out forgotten characters and gives form to abandoned dreams."
--Foreword

"Across the collection, Goss blends fantastical premises with meditations on history, identity, and the art of storytelling, often drawing from her own Hungarian childhood. There is a distinctive undercurrent of wonder and menace to the tales, each one told with lush prose and sly wit."
--Publishers Weekly

"In the tradition of great modern fantasists like Angela Carter and Marina Warner, Theodora Goss's sublime tales are modern classics-beautiful, sly, sensual and deeply moving."
--Elizabeth Hand, winner of the Mythopoeic and World Fantasy Awards

"Wildly imaginative, gloriously sneaky, delicious tales of monsters and the terrible and beautiful sublimity of the imagination."
--Cory Doctorow, author of Walkaway

"One of the most voraciously, delightfully readable books I've ever read and it's one of the most writerly books, too...it's flashy, it's writerly, it's clever as hell."
--Medium

"In addition to Goss's clearly passionate engagement with the books and places she loves, her voice remains entirely her own, ranging from clear-eyed lyricism to mordant wit."
--Locus

"These love letters to storytelling are sharp-witted and illuminating."
--David Ebenbach, author of How to Mars

"The elegance of Goss's work has never ceased to amaze me."
--Catherynne M. Valente, winner of the Mythopoeic, Locus, Hugo, Otherwise and Theodore Sturgeon Awards

"Through prose and poetry, Goss shines her unique light into the fairytale forest--and many bright eyes gleam back."
--Margo Lanagan, winner of the Aurealis, Ditmar and World Fantasy Awards

"Literary, lyrical, lovely. An elegant waltz through history and literature, with a fantastical turn."
--Marie Brennan, author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent series

"Goss's formidable powers as an observer and storyteller are showcased in these beautiful stories."
--Fran Wilde, Nebula-winning author of A Catalog of Storms

"In these lyrical stories from the past fifteen years, ones that turn Victorian fantasy on its head and make you wonder what the present is actually about."
--Literary Hub

"Expansive, generous storytelling."
--Shiny New Books

"An analytical treasure trove that I'm going to take my time unpacking, because my god, it's so rich."
--Reactor

"As a collection, I've not read anything half so fascinating."
--The Nameless Zine

Praise for The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

Locus Award Winner
Nebula Award finalist
World Fantasy Award finalist

"As if Charlie's Angels, as written by Mary Shelley, took over the Bluestocking Society, with bonus well-mannered explosions. An utterly delightful, transformative read."
--Fran Wilde, award-winning author of Updraft

Publisher: Tachyon Publications

Pub date: 2025-11-11

Length: 352 pages