Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive
In the miracle that is a first book, I am so excited that my collection of short stories will be published by Guernica Editions in March 2026.
Book Launch: Thursday March 5, 2026. Society Clubhouse. 6:00pm to 9:00pm. RSVP through Another Story Bookshop (link to be added).
Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive blurs the lines between horror, catastrophic speculative fiction, and psychological realism in a collection that might best be described as weird fiction. These connected stories offer dark reconstructions of lives brimming with desperate loneliness. They allow us to bear witness to the life-altering love of sisters, brothers, mothers… the life-altering love that buoys them as they struggle to stay afloat in the wake of childhoods they merely survived.
Preorder from your local bookstore now. Preorders are super important for book success, so if you can, I will be eternally grateful!
- In Canada, find your local book shop at IndieBookstores.ca
- In the US, find your local book shop at BookShop.org
- In the UK, request it from your local indie book shop.
Writers I admire so much have shared their very kind words, and I am eternally grateful!
Halfway into the first page of this collection, I thought “what the hell is this?”. And then I couldn’t put the book down. Alison Gadsby has a flair for writing the gritty, weird and topsy-turvy of life. — Farzana Doctor, author of Seven and The Beauty of Us
These stories are a sometimes jarring, always hypnotic, staccato phase out of the world we know and simultaneously—through Gadsby’s deep rootedness to our reckless and remarkable humanity—a tether to it. Unforgettable. — Hollay Ghadery, author of The Unravelling of Ou and Widow Fantasies
Gadsby’s vivid prose simmers with quiet rage at the ordinariness of violence, the casualness of cruelty, and the normalcy of misogyny. There is something electric running through these subtly linked stories – don’t be surprised when they leave you feeling lit up. — Anuja Varghese, author of Chrysalis and A Kiss of Crimson Ash
Searingly sharp, intricately constructed, and hugely original, BREATHING IS HOW SOME PEOPLE STAY ALIVE takes you down into the viscera of life while showing you just what the world is today. It’s an unforgettable read and an unforgettable experience. — Damian Tarnopolsky, author of Every Night I Dream I’m a Monk, Every Night I Dream I’m a Monster
With razor sharp sentences and a deeply compassionate heart, Alison Gadsby’s stories unfold to reveal beautiful and startling truths that stay with the reader long after the reading is done. — Carleigh Baker, author of Last Woman and Bad Endings
A writer. 