" Dictionary Stories isn’t just a book for word nerds, but for anyone for whom language and story matter. Everybody will find themselves thoroughly in love with this book."  —Kory Stamper, editor for Merriam-Webster, and author of Word by Word Everyone has looked up a word in the dictionary. Some of us have even asked for it to be used in a sentence during our 2nd grade spelling bee. But few of us have ever really considered those example sentences: where they come from, how they’re generated…and why in heaven’s name they are so darn weird. Jez Burrows opened the New Oxford American Dictionary and sat, mystified. Instead of the definition of "study" he was looking for, he found himself drawn to the strangely conspicuous, curiously melodramatic sentence that followed it: "He perched on the edge of the bed, a study in confusion and misery." It read like a tiny piece of fiction on the lam and hiding out in the dictionary—and it wasn’t alone. Was it possible to reunite these fugitive fictions? To combine and remix example sentences to form new works? With this spark and a handful of stories shared online, Dictionary Stories was born. This genre-bending and wildly inventive collection glows with humor, emotion, and intellect. Effortlessly transcending sentence level, Burrows lights between the profound and the absurd, transporting readers into moments, worlds, and experiences of remarkable variety. Featuring original illustrations by the author, Dictionary Stories is a giddy celebration of the beauty and flexibility of language.   “Jez has long been one of my favorite illustrators, and now he comes up with Dictionary Stories —sentences stolen from dictionaries and pasted together into tiny, delightful narratives. A brilliant literary remix.” - Austin Kleon, New York Times bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist “Until you read Dictionary Stories , you’ll never understand just how weird the dictionary really is. Jez Burrows’ Dictionary Stories is all of human emotion and experience, handily arranged in alphabetical order” - Erin McKean, former editor of the New Oxford American Dictionary and founder of Wordnik “ Dictionary Stories brings to literature the spirit of the musical mashup, digging in the crates to find old hooks and arrange them into new delights with an appeal that’s not merely academic but truly pop. This kind of work reminds us: it’s all there, love and disappointment and deep humor, latent in our language and its storehouses; but it takes a keen eye to connect the dots. Jez Burrows is keen indeed.” - Robin Sloan, New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore “The dictionary is not a place that you expect to find the stuff of romance, poignancy, belly laughs, or drama--unless you’re Jez Burrows. He makes those flat samples of words in use shine and sparkle, knotting them together into vignettes that make you laugh, cry, gasp--vignettes that make language as personal as your own fingerprint. I write dictionaries, and I’ll never look at their example sentences the same way again. Dictionary Stories isn’t just a book for word nerds, but for anyone for whom language and story matter. Everybody, A-Z, will find themselves thoroughly in love with this book.” - Kory Stamper, lexicographer and editor for Merriam-Webster, and author of Word by Word “Burrows has a talent for a delightfully askew existentialism… The stories are wickedly short but exquisitely rendered, accompanied by whimsical, minimalist illustrations by the author. A fabulist remix of the English language and a tribute to clever lexicographers everywhere.” - Kirkus Reviews “[An] entirely original collection… With a deft eye for depth and irony, Burrows plucks seemingly inane phrases…and arranges them into haunting, hilarious, and human minidramas.” - Booklist “You’ll find everything from two-sentence short stories to a list of bands you probably haven’t heard of. We’ve never read anything quite like it.” - HelloGiggles “They’re absolutely addicting, and that is the highest praise I can bestow on this work—it is one task to bring good stories to people. It is another to bring a new game, a new form, a new diversion of the field. Burrows’ burrows are just that, and if you, or your friends, are the sort who love words and playing with them, you should seek out a copy of this fine new book.” - The Seattle Review of Books “ Dictionary Stories is a giddy celebration of the wild, elastic potential of language.” - McSweeny's “The most original book to be published in quite some time.” - San Jose Mercury News “An ingenious addition to literary exploration.” - San Francisco Chronicle “A brilliant, inventive book.” - Psych Central “Uproarious and ingenious… What sounds like mere novelty turns out to be a revelation in Burrows’s hands, as unlikely sentences generate even more unlikely narratives. Dictionary Stories is a joyful celebration of idiosyncrasy and invention.” - Publis