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Sydney Rende's debut collection spoke to me from the first line, where a receptionist cold-messages a celebrity to say they'd be a ""good match""... I Could Be Famous is sharp, darkly funny, and, in the words of the reality TV star from my favourite story, ""very anthropological"" * Anna Dorn, author of Perfume and Pain * Shot through with a crystalline wit and mordant surprise, I Could Be Famous is outstanding... the characters at once shocked and delighted me. With the same insatiable desire that animates Rende's prose, I devoured these stories * Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, author of Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare * A terrific debut: fresh, original, and surprising. Eleven fast, sharp, funny stories laced with a deep understanding of the corrosive effect our fame-hungry attention economy has on real connection between people. Rende is such a witty, engaging writer, with an intuitive understanding that the short story is in the world to delight, engage, and enlarge the reader * George Saunders * Sydney Rende's funny, sweet, stinging voice is made for this moment, and for those coming of age within it. An important debut and an invaluable tip-sheet to the way we live now, I Could Be Famous captures perfectly the hazards of young womanhood in a world where everyone is desperate to be looked at, but wary of being seen * Jonathan Dee, author of The Privileges *

Sydney Rende's debut collection spoke to me from the first line, where a receptionist cold-messages a celebrity to say they'd be a ""good match""... I Could Be Famous is sharp, darkly funny, and, in the words of the reality TV star from my favourite story, ""very anthropological"" * Anna Dorn, author of Perfume and Pain * Shot through with a crystalline wit and mordant surprise, I Could Be Famous is outstanding... the characters at once shocked and delighted me. With the same insatiable desire that animates Rende's prose, I devoured these stories * Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, author of Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare * A terrific debut: fresh, original, and surprising. Eleven fast, sharp, funny stories laced with a deep understanding of the corrosive effect our fame-hungry attention economy has on real connection between people. Rende is such a witty, engaging writer, with an intuitive understanding that the short story is in the world to delight, engage, and enlarge the reader * George Saunders * Sydney Rende's funny, sweet, stinging voice is made for this moment, and for those coming of age within it. An important debut and an invaluable tip-sheet to the way we live now, I Could Be Famous captures perfectly the hazards of young womanhood in a world where everyone is desperate to be looked at, but wary of being seen * Jonathan Dee, author of The Privileges * Sydney Rende's genius for the absurd is underpinned by her great comic timing. Even in her characters' darkest moments, salvation is found through an ever-present wit. Her sharply funny and fearless stories deftly satirize our too online, celebrity-obsessed cultural abyss. And if you cock your head and look closely, there is something so tender (and lonely) at the heart of them. I Could Be Famous is a wonderful debut * Dana Spiotta, author of Wayward *

Author Information

Sydney Rende grew up in Baltimore and lived in New York City for many years, where she had her own odd brushes with celebrity. She received her MFA in Fiction from Syracuse University, and her stories have been published in Joyland, Carve Magazine, and elsewhere.

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