The sixteen stories comprising A Kingdom for the Bird were written during my time in Georgia State University’s Creative Writing program. Each sprouted from its own seed, grew by its own supply of water and proximity to light, and was pruned in the shape of the design it revealed. The stories—some brief, others long, some quick, others slow, some straightforward, others circuitous—study a variety of themes: human nature, solitude, real and imagined relationships, self-loathing, self-loving, self-fulfilling prophecy, identity, anticipation of love, making love, losing love, cats, dogs, birds, bank-robberies, families, empathy, self-deception, humiliation, stand-up comedy, murder, war, candy mints, nude photographs, funerals gone wrong, and ways to open a coconut.