Embedded Files
Books, fiction, short stories, and literary publications by Kevin Haslam.
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The Cotton Candy Machine (2026)
The Cotton Candy Machine (2026)
A tense, darkly funny novel about work, family, and the violence of being disagreeable.
A tense, darkly funny novel about work, family, and the violence of being disagreeable.
Declan Burke has built his life around being useful: keeping the house running, smoothing the meetings, answering every email carefully enough to avoid becoming a problem. But as pressure rises at work, at home, and inside his own body, the habits that once kept him safe begin to look more like disappearance.
Declan Burke has built his life around being useful: keeping the house running, smoothing the meetings, answering every email carefully enough to avoid becoming a problem. But as pressure rises at work, at home, and inside his own body, the habits that once kept him safe begin to look more like disappearance.
A family health crisis, a son’s difficult questions, and a workplace where “support” comes with strings force Declan to confront the cost of endless patience and accommodation. With dry humor and emotional precision, The Cotton Candy Machine examines the systems that call themselves humane—right up until you stop cooperating—and the quiet negotiations that teach people to endure what they were never meant to carry.
A family health crisis, a son’s difficult questions, and a workplace where “support” comes with strings force Declan to confront the cost of endless patience and accommodation. With dry humor and emotional precision, The Cotton Candy Machine examines the systems that call themselves humane—right up until you stop cooperating—and the quiet negotiations that teach people to endure what they were never meant to carry.
The Quiet Parts (2025)
The Quiet Parts (2025)
The Quiet Parts is a collection of stories about what happens in the pauses—between decisions, paychecks, and the words we mean and the words we settle for.
The Quiet Parts is a collection of stories about what happens in the pauses—between decisions, paychecks, and the words we mean and the words we settle for.
Set across Rhode Island and nearby New England, the stories move through clinics, kitchens, offices, bars, and nursing homes, where ordinary life quietly sharpens into something else. With lyrical precision and close attention to the small details people miss until it is too late, the collection explores power, shame, tenderness, dignity, and survival.
Set across Rhode Island and nearby New England, the stories move through clinics, kitchens, offices, bars, and nursing homes, where ordinary life quietly sharpens into something else. With lyrical precision and close attention to the small details people miss until it is too late, the collection explores power, shame, tenderness, dignity, and survival.
These stories do not shout for attention. They listen—to the human heart under pressure, and to the silence where the truth often lives.
These stories do not shout for attention. They listen—to the human heart under pressure, and to the silence where the truth often lives.
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SELECTED LITERARY PUBLICATIONS
Short fiction published in literary journals, 2019–2020.
"Every Cell Screams"
"Every Cell Screams"
Dime Show ReviewÂ
Vol. 3.1 (2019)
"Spitting Distance"
"Spitting Distance"
The Magnolia ReviewÂ
Vol. 5.1 (2020)
"Refuse"
"Refuse"
Adelaide Literary Magazine
Vol. 25 (2020)
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You Forgot About Me (2018)
You Forgot About Me (2018)
You Forgot About Me is a cycle of five interconnected stories set during the final months of World War II and its aftermath.
Moving from the HĂĽrtgen Forest to hospitals, trains, and hometown streets, the collection follows soldiers, families, and civilians confronting what remains after survival. Home becomes less a destination than a question: what can be recovered, what cannot be said, and what the living carry forward.
Dedicated to the men who fought in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, You Forgot About Me is less interested in medals than in memory—and in the cost of bringing war home.
Salinger in the Rye (2018)
Salinger in the Rye (2018)
Salinger in the Rye is a reader-friendly guide to the literary, historical, and pop-cultural references woven throughout the works of J.D. Salinger.
Organized for quick lookup, it offers concise explanations of the people, places, works, institutions, and cultural touchstones that appear across Salinger’s stories and novels. Designed for students, teachers, and serious readers, the guide provides enough context to show why each reference matters—without academic fog.
Whether studying a single story or revisiting the larger canon, Salinger in the Rye turns passing mentions into meaning and background noise into signal.
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Kevin Haslam’s fiction examines family, work, memory, emotional inheritance, and the small private negotiations that shape ordinary lives. He is the author of The Cotton Candy Machine, The Quiet Parts, and other literary work exploring the hidden machinery beneath ordinary life.
Kevin Haslam’s fiction examines family, work, memory, emotional inheritance, and the small private negotiations that shape ordinary lives. He is the author of The Cotton Candy Machine, The Quiet Parts, and other literary work exploring the hidden machinery beneath ordinary life.
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