Shane is currently querying his debut novel, The Danger Is to the Body and It Can Kill.
The novel was a finalist for the 2025 Big Moose Prize from Black Lawrence Press and was longlisted for the C&R Press 2024 Fiction Award. The full manuscript is available upon request.
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Your ancestors built a hideous machine.
Your labor feeds it to this day.
What will you do?
This is the question Laurence must answer as he clears animal carcasses from New England wilderness blighted by a mysterious industrial disaster. Plagued by thoughts of the violence underpinning American society, Laurence sets his sights on “the machine,” a vast and fickle contraption at the center of the disaster, whose shadow has been lengthening since the first Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock. He fancies himself a modern-day John Brown, destined for a heroic end setting fire to the machine; but as the time to act draws near, he is confronted by the fragility of his conviction and the childishness of the belief that one man can change the world. Joining him on this journey is a devout elder who clutches her name like a terrible secret, a young woman who wishes to bargain with the machine, and a lost dog who may not be what she seems. Wrestling with hope, rage, and responsibility, these guilty souls must dig deep into America’s angry soil for the answers they seek, down to the jagged bones buried within.
Shane Inman 