About

Kirsten Bakis is the author of two novels. King Nyx (Liveright/Norton February 2024), is "a novel of delicious disquiet" (Victor LaValle) and "a smart and engaging literary thriller . . . almost impossible to put down." (Kirkus). In his introduction to the 20th anniversary edition of her first novel, Jeff VanderMeer called Lives of the Monster Dogs "undeniably. . . a classic."

Bakis is recipient of multiple awards, including a Michener-Copernicus Society of America Grant, Whiting Foundation Award, and a Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant. Writing in the Washington Post, Jacob Brogan called Bakis "a major talent, a writer of prodigious commitment, capability and imagination." She is a resident faculty member at the Yale Writers’ Workshop and lives in New York's lower Hudson Valley.

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Photo credit: Charlotte Van Fossen

Praise for LIVES OF THE MONSTER DOGS

"Lives of the Monster Dogs feels undeniably like a classic. . . . Bakis makes readers think in a hybrid fashion: about both animal and human intelligence." —The Atlantic

"Haunting, fiercely original . . . unfolds like a rich, resonant dream . . . A dazzling, unforgettable meditation on what it means to be human." —New York Times Book Review

"Engrossing . . . sublime . . . sears your memory with indelible moments." —Chicago Tribune

"One of the most unique an unusual works of fiction to come along in may years . . . fabulous." —USA Today

"The author makes an astonishing and elegiac case for the dogs' assertion that 'it's a terrible thing to be a dog and know it.'" —The New Yorker

"An impressive first novel . . . an effervescent, free-wheeling fantasia. . . utterly captivating . . This is the way, one things, new talent should make its debut: in exuberant reckless, and intelligent play." —Boston Sunday Globe

"Well-wrought . . . genuinely affecting . . . Bakis deserves praise so high only dogs can hear it." —Newsweek

"An effective fantasy in the tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson and Mary Shelley . . . loaded with metaphor and reflection. . . and with a real technical knack, as Bakis plays elegantly with the themes, and the stylistics, of German Romanticism" —Wall Street Journal

"A revelation . . . Lives of the Monster Dogs is a truly unique work of the imagination." —New York Daily News

"Strange . . . compelling . . . Extremely topical and provocative." —Hartford Courant

"Utterly original . . . lodges itself indelibly in the memory." —Sunday Telegraph, UK

"Extravagantly imaginative . . . Funny, sad, and wise." —Glasgow Harold

PUBLISHER'S PAGE / BUY THE BOOK

"Fantastic, skillfully told . . . bizarrely enchanting . . . this poignant, magnificent book inspires all sorts of wild wonderment about man's best friend. What do dogs think about? What would they say if they could talk? What if dogs were more like us?" —People

"A boldly unleashed imagination . . . A skillful interplay of sadness and mystery . . . leaves a melancholy stillness as it is put back on the shelf." —Time

"On one level it might be compared to The Island of Dr. Moreau and the dangers of what happens when a mad scientist begins messing about, trying to 'improve' upon nature. But this novel is too good to be a mere catalogue of ideas. The characters are too wonderful . . . perfectly drawn . . . A unique novel I admired greatly." —Washington Post

"Futuristic and oddly elegant . . . takes a different look at ego, nature, and destiny . . . there is a resounding echo of Poe, H.G. Wells, and Orwell in Bakis's writing." —San Diego Union-Tribune

"A stunning first novel . . . wild . . . poignant . . . The best of creations, spun of words and a fine limitless imagination." —Sunday Oregonian

"Riveting." —Dallas Morning News

"Immensely touching." —New York Newsday