Robert Jacoby

Fiction

This is fiction. So none of this is true.

Current work

Selected stories placed in journals and anthologies.
  • Memory's Bright Burn

    A linked collection of stories and flash fiction following a boy growing up in 1970s Ohio.

Published stories

Do You Want to Play a Game? — October 15, 2026 · Short Story Substack

In progress

  • One Day in the Life of Daniel Farr

    After being fired for viewing online pornography at work, Daniel Farr spends a single day confronting the consequences of a life that no longer makes sense to him.
Completed novel. Seeking representation.
  • One Year in the Life of Daniel Farr

    The story continues as Daniel learns the cost of freedom.
Completed sequel. Seeking representation.

The novels

Novel · 2019 and Novel · 2012
Novel · 2019

Dusk and Ember

After a friend is murdered, nineteen-year-old Richard Issych sets out for the wake and a chance to begin again. Set against the backdrop of foundry work, motorcycle gangs, and small-town America, Dusk and Ember is a dark coming-of-age novel about the lives that break us and remake us.

Amazon
Novel · 2012

There Are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes

After a suicide attempt leaves him hospitalized, nineteen-year-old Richard Issych wakes in a psychiatric unit and begins a journey through despair, redemption, hope, and the struggle to find reasons for living.
Amazon

Short stories

Selected stories placed in journals and anthologies.
  • From the Depths, No. 16 · 2018
  • "The Span of Blood"

    Runner-up in the 2018 Haunted Waters Press Short Shorts Flash Fiction Competition

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  • New Kent Quarterly, 1985
  • "See in a Mirror Dimly"

    Winner, New Kent Quarterly short fiction contest
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