I’m Alexander Ortega, and I’m a Salt Lake City–based fiction writer who explores the interstices between the real and the absurd to create my own dimensions on the page. My work has been published in Quarter After Eight, Quarterly West, Moss literary journal, and an anthology called EVERGREEN: Grim Tales & Verses from the Gloomy Northwest. I was also a 2022 Summer Fishtrap Fellow and a 2023 Granary Arts Critical Ground Fellow. My lyric short story, “Maroons,” was a finalist for Iowa Review’s 2022 short fiction contest, long-listed for Fish Publishing’s 2022 Short Story Prize, and long-listed for The Masters Review’s 2023 Winter Short Story Award for New Writers.