From nosey neighbors to alien lovers, from examinations of race to explorations of alcoholism, from concrete poetry to Lovecraftian horror - you've never read a collection of stories like this one!

The Literary Taxidermy Short Story Competition invites writers to stitch together their own stories using the opening and closing lines from classic works of fiction. For the 2018 competition, aspiring writers were given these choices: The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett; Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll; or "A Telephone Call" by Dorothy Parker.

ONE THING WAS CERTAIN contains the finalists from the Lewis Carroll contest. Every story starts and ends exactly the same way - with the opening and closing sentence of Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll - and yet the stories themselves are nothing alike. Horror, science fiction, political commentary, humor. They are as different from one another as the twenty authors who dreamt them up. Come, meet this year's finalists from the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, India, and the UK, who range in age from fourteen to seventy-six. You won't be disappointed!

Learn more about literary taxidermy, as well as future contests, by visiting literarytaxidermy.com.

"A clever idea and an exciting contest." - Alison Portage

"You'll believe twenty impossible things before breakfast." - New York Readers Club

"It's hard to imagine so many different stories lay dormant between the opening and closing of every book. But they do, and you'll find them here." - re/ART

"A great example of 'what-if' fiction. Makes you wonder what kind of story you'd write!" - Lively Fiction