title: Dictionary Stories: Short Fictions and Other Findings
author:  Jez Burrows 
description: &#8220;A revelation in remix; a book of joyous recombinations.&#8221; (Robin Sloan, <em>New York Times</em> bestselling author of&#160;<em>Mr. Penumbra&#8217;s 24-Hour Bookstore</em>)<br /><br />&#8220;<em>Dictionary Stories</em> isn&#8217;t just a book for word nerds, but for anyone for whom language and story matter. Everybody, A-Z, will find themselves thoroughly in love with this book.&#8221; (Kory Stamper, lexicographer and editor for Merriam-Webster, and author of <em>Word by Word</em>)<br /><br />&#8220;Jez has long been one of my favorite illustrators, and now he comes up with <em>Dictionary Stories</em>&#8212;sentences stolen from dictionaries and pasted together into tiny, delightful narratives. A brilliant literary remix.&#8221; (Austin Kleon, <em>New York Times</em> bestselling author of <em>Steal Like an Artist</em>)<br /><br />&#8220;Until you read <em>Dictionary Stories</em>, you&#8217;ll never understand just how weird the dictionary really is. Jez Burrows&#8217; <em>Dictionary Stories</em> is all of human emotion and experience, handily arranged in alphabetical order&#8221; (Erin McKean, former editor of the <em>New Oxford American Dictionary</em> and founder of Wordnik)<br /><br />&#8220;Brilliantly, brazenly fun. Like a cabaret for word lovers.&#8221; (Sean Michaels, author of Giller Prize-winning novel <em>Us Conductors</em>)<br /><br />&#8220;Burrows has a talent for a delightfully askew existentialism&#8230; The stories are wickedly short but exquisitely rendered, accompanied by whimsical, minimalist illustrations by the author. A fabulist remix of the English language and a tribute to clever lexicographers everywhere.&#8221; (Kirkus Reviews)<br /><br />&#8220;[An] entirely original collection&#8230; With a deft eye for depth and irony, Burrows plucks seemingly inane phrases&#8230;and arranges them into haunting, hilarious, and human minidramas.&#8221; (Booklist)<br /><br />&#8220;Uproarious and ingenious&#8230; What sounds like mere novelty turns out to be a revelation in Burrows&#8217;s hands, as unlikely sentences generate even more unlikely narratives. <em>Dictionary Stories</em> is a joyful celebration of idiosyncrasy and invention.&#8221; (Publishers Weekly <strong>(starred review)</strong>)<br /><br />&#8220;Chaotically engaging...exemplary...majestic.&#8221; (KQED)<br /><br />&#8220;A&#160;serendipitous reading experience...Burrows challenges our ideas of the writing process and unpacks our understanding of what is literary.&#8221; (Ploughshares)
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  **WRITER'S DIGEST**
  
   **GRAMMAR**  
   **DESK**  
   **REFERENCE**
  
   _The definitive_  
   _source for clear and_ __  
  _correct writing_
  
  ![](Images/image00552.jpeg)
  
   **WRIER’S DIGEST**  
   **BOOKS**
  
  [ WritersDigest. _com_](http://writersdigest.com)  
  Cincinnati, Ohio
  
  **GARY LUTZ** **&**  
   **DIANE STEVENSON**
  
    
    
    
  
  >  **ABOUT THE AUTHORS**
  
  ![](Images/image00508.jpeg)
  
   **Gary Lutz** is the author of the short-story collections _Stories in the
  Worst Way_ (published in hardcover by Alfred A. Knopf in 1996 and in paperback
  by 3rd bed in 2002) and _I Looked Alive_ (published by Black Square
  Editions/Four Walls Eight Windows in 2004). His chapbook, _Partial List of
  People to Bleach_ , was released by Future Tense Books in 2007. His work has
  appeared in several anthologies, including _The Random House Treasury of Light
  Verse_ and _The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories_. He has been
  awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Foundat