Alex Ashbrook
Fiction | Cleveland State University | Class of 2022
In Alex Ashbrook’s Long Lines at Nostalgia Park, we’re plunged into a sad and comedic near future where climate change and overpopulation has led to local governments demanding a person from each family to sacrifice themselves for the good of humanity. In this world turned upside down, we follow a young man and his twenties who has been voted out by his family, as he meets others who have either willingly self-selected or been forced into the role of sacrifice, at an island in Ohio that’s been built up as a dangerous amusement park, where they can easily find ways to die for the sake of others. Spoiler alert: a mystery is discovered, and our band of would-be sacrifices find a way to reveal to the world that not all is what it seems at Paradise Island. —Chris Barzak
About Alex
Alex Ashbrook is a fiction writer and musician living in Cleveland, Ohio. He holds a BA in English and Fine Arts and an MFA from Cleveland State University.
ALEX'S FAST FACTS
Your advice to an incoming MFA student? (or the best piece of advice you received as a young writer?)
Everytime you think you have a good idea for a Tweet, write it down and use it in a story instead.
Do you have any eccentric habits/strategies to get you started writing? What are they?
Sometimes when I’m stuck, I’ll pick four or five books off my shelf at random and read their opening lines.
Your favorite place to write while in the NEOMFA?
Edison’s Pub in Tremont.
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English Department
Cleveland State University
2121 Euclid Ave., RT 1815
Cleveland, Ohio 44115