Shawn Casselberry
Fiction Books
"Don't starve the monster, lest ye all should perish!"
You are about to enter into the world of the peculiar and the bizarre. Strange Fire is a collection of 15 stand-alone short stories by Shawn Casselberry that will grip your heart and keep you guessing to the end. Monsters are on the loose in Hollow Town and no child is safe who has the Mark. A social media influencer must learn to shed more than her apathy in Skin. A 15-year-old from the South Side of Chicago discovers he has special powers when he protects his best friend from police brutality in The Windy City Wizard. Writer Arthur G. Blum is ready to end it all when his fictional subjects stage an intervention in Characters. Strange Fire will transport you to unusual worlds and will transform you so you'll never be the same.
Rogue Priest is a progressive fiction book by author Shawn Casselberry about a priest who does wrong for all the right reasons. Father James Wright, a fiery justice-minded priest, causes trouble with city, church, and gang leaders as he attempts to be an ally for his community. While coming up against forces of violence and corruption, he must also confront his broken past, including family baggage and a former love interest. Through a series of unexpected events, Father Wright's world is turned upside down and he must reconcile his faith with the reality of human tragedy. The book tackles topics of faith and doubt, race and power, justice and hope with the city of Chicago as the backdrop. This exciting and unconventional story of heartache and hope, compels the reader to wrestle with deep questions and feel the full range of human emotions.
Poetry Books
in lonesome darkness is a poetry chapbook about the gifts of forced isolation. Sometimes we find ourselves in places where we feel stuck, abandoned, exiled, even from ourselves.
The darkness can feel scary like a prison, but it can also be a place and a space for revelation and change. When we befriend the darkness, we find more than we expected, we find a companion for the journey, we find our self.
It is in this crucible we discover that some of the deepest transformation happens in lonesome darkness.
Prophets of Dust is a collection of poems about loss, grief, and unexpected endings. Part autobiographical, part speculative, this book of poetry by Shawn Casselberry lays bare sacred scars in an honest search for healing and life after death. There are also poems about the end of the world (figurative and literal), heaven and hell, growing up as a pastor's kid, forgiving the sins of Martin Luther King, Jr., a love poem for a Chicago neighborhood, and a lot of other personal reflections on grief. To get a free e-copy, simply sign up for Shawn's newsletter.