Sexy Tales of Paleontology
2023 Shortlisted
A pile of rats having an identity crisis. A sexy robot rebellion. A velociraptor revenge wedding. The world’s horniest scientist. Enter Sexy Tales of Paleontology: a world of queer romance, (dis)connection, and artifical intelligence told with Patrick Lenton’s idiosyncratic bizarreness and heart.
Lenton’s short stories combine laugh-out-loud humour with an honest-to-goodness sensibility. Sci-fi oddities, pop culture, a lesser-known Kardashian who lives on the moon, and a deft turn of comic absurdity bound through this truly queer romp of a book. But beyond all this, at the beating heart of the book, is the foolishness, horror, and delight that is love and heartbreak and 43 rats.
Patrick Lenton
Patrick Lenton is an author and journalist from Melbourne. He is the author of A Man Made Entirely of Bats (Spineless Wonders), collection of essays Uncle Hercules and Other Lies (Subbed In), and full-length collection of short stories Sexy Tales of Paleontology (Subbed In). His writing has been featured in The Best Australian Stories, The Best Australian Comedy Writing, Growing Up Queer In Australia, and journals like Kill Your Darlings, Going Down Swinging, Scum Magazine, and more. He is the deputy arts and culture editor at The Conversation, and a freelance writer with regular bylines in The Guardian, The Age/Sydney Morning Herald, Junkee, and more.