In Zugzwang – Stories of Ilion Heights

Scheduled for publication by Pierian Springs Press on May 5, 2025.

In Zugzwang – Stories of Ilion Heights is a short story collection that was a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction sponsored by the University of Georgia Press and for the St. Lawrence Book Award sponsored by Black Lawrence Press.

In Zugzwang takes readers deep into the battered heart of Ilion Heights—a neighborhood of tight alleys, desperate gambles, and lives on the brink. Across these interlinked stories, a cast of unforgettable characters battles the grinding reality of factory work, the anxiety of immigration, and the haunting pull of half-buried dreams. Through the eyes of garbage collectors, day laborers, and struggling families, Liss paints a landscape where even small victories feel hard-won, and every turn feels like a move in a deadly game of chess.

At the center of this gritty tapestry is the looming sense of zugzwang—the notion that any move you make can only worsen your position. Whether it’s Anastasia’s fierce bid to protect her son’s future, a war-scarred Joao seeking solace behind a camera lens, or Sabatino’s quiet crusade against the cruelty of the city’s powerful, each story pulses with the tension of choices made under crushing constraints. Yet amid the clamor of back-alley deals and relentless shifts at the transfer station, sparks of hope flicker: a whispered dream, a shared vision, a stubborn act of defiance against a world determined to keep its denizens down.

Overflowing with raw humanity, dark humor, and bursts of longing, In Zugzwang challenges readers to grapple with the forces—poverty, power, and the past—that relentlessly shape these lives. Liss masterfully unravels the threads of a forgotten community, revealing that in the harshest places, there is still grace to be found in resilience and the abiding desire for meaning.