Łukasz Drobnik
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Łukasz Drobnik
@drobnik.co
640 followers 580 following 160 posts
Fiction writer, author of VOSTOK, RIVERINE & NOCTURINE. Words in Split Lip Magazine, HAD, Fractured Lit, Foglifter, etc. He/him. Website: drobnik.co
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drobnik.co
I’m shit at marketing, and you can tell because I published a book nearly a month ago, and you probably haven’t heard about it.

Anyway, NOCTURINE is a surreal novella in breathless paragraphs. You might enjoy it if you’re into dark, voicey stuff.
A copy of Nocturine held against some petunias. The cover features a magenta pixely jellyfish in the style of 8-bit games as well as the title and author’s name (Łukasz Drobnik) in a similarly pixely font against a black background. An open copy of Nocturine held against some petunias.
September 29, 2025 at 2:54 PM
drobnik.co
At long last, NOCTURINE is here!

The novella had a wild publishing journey. It was supposed to be my first book published in English, but ended up being my third.

Huge thanks to @alienbuddhapress.bsky.social for giving it a new home!

You can get your copy here:

amazon.com/NOCTURINE-%C...
The cover of Nocturine by Łukasz Drobnik with a magenta pixely jellyfish in the style of 8-bit games as well as the title and author’s name in a similarly pixely font against a black background.
September 2, 2025 at 2:19 PM
drobnik.co
FIRST KICKING, THEN NOT by @writesloud.bsky.social has made it to Poland! 🔥🔥 Can’t wait to dig in!
A copy of First Kicking, Then Not by Hannah Grieco held against orange-spotted yellow canna lilies.
August 22, 2025 at 2:35 PM
drobnik.co
Remember NOCTURINE?

My surreal novella/linked story collection that was forthcoming for eight years but didn’t come out in the end?

—It’s forthcoming again!

Thank you @alienbuddhapress.bsky.social for giving the book a lovely home.

Release date: September 2, 2025.
The front cover of Nocturine by Łukasz Drobnik with a magenta pixely jellyfish in the style of 8-bit games as well as the title and author’s name in a similarly pixely font against a black background. The back cover of Nocturine with the logo of Alien Buddha Press and the following text in a magenta font. Excerpt: The vehicle somersaulted, I couldn't manoeuvre, the currents were too fast, red blood cells kept hitting the vehicle's walls, white blood cells opalised in the headlights, soft shreds of thrombocytes floated by, I was surrounded by the warmth of your body, I thought about the day you'd moved in, and I carried all your stuff up to the tenth floor, annoyed you were in class when I had to take a day off, after you came home, I made dinner, and then we had sex on the floor. Blurb: Nocturine is a surreal apocalyptic fantasy with a literary bent and elements of horror. Six twentysomethings receive emails warning them that their city, Poznań, is about to meet its Ragnarök. Drobnik orchestrates a dazzling descent into collapse and rebirth. These are the last days of Poznań rendered in dreamlike fragments, each chapter a separate account, yet intertwined by desire, infidelity, and fate. Imagine 8-bit dreams, darkly luminous, pulsing with urgency and the promise of another beginning. Bio: Łukasz Drobnik is a queer Polish writer, author of Vostok and Riverine. His work has appeared in Split Lip Magazine, HAD, Fractured Lit, and Foglifter. Longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50 and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, he continues to shape fiction that feels electric and strange.
August 4, 2025 at 4:48 PM
drobnik.co
Look at this child in his first publication from 20 (!) years ago.

I might not have had a stellar writing career, and the world is an even scarier place than back then, but I’m here and keep writing.

Thank you all for reading and supporting me throughout literal decades! 💙
An old magazine with my story in Polish titled Astroskopia with a photo of a pensive young white man — the author.
June 25, 2025 at 1:02 PM
drobnik.co
NOCTURINE news: the publisher has just informed me the book is scheduled for May.

Thank you all for your support ❤️
New release date: Fathom Books has just informed me Nocturine is scheduled for May. Thank you all for your patience, kindness, and support. I’ll let you know once I have more news. Łukasz
December 18, 2024 at 4:58 PM
drobnik.co
It’s RIVERINE’s first birthday!

If you like flash fiction that oscillates between literary, speculative, and surreal, you can still get your copy at drobnik.co/links
A copy of the flash fiction collection Riverine held in fluorescent purple light against some artworks
December 5, 2024 at 6:34 PM
drobnik.co
RIVERINE is one month old today!

Huge thanks to VA Press & everyone who has bought and supported my book! 💙🌊
The book RIVERINE held against some pink-lit house plants.
January 5, 2024 at 3:31 PM
drobnik.co
If you want to read three stories from RIVERINE, head over to my blog:

drobnik.co/blog/riverin...
Screenshot of a blog post titled Riverine: Three Stories
December 13, 2023 at 3:13 PM
drobnik.co
Book mail day! ❄️

@amygcb.bsky.social & Shome Dasgupta 🩷
Child Craft by Amy Cipolla Barnes and The Muu-Antiques by Shome Dasgupta against a snowy landscape Another shot of the same books
December 7, 2023 at 3:19 PM
drobnik.co
Here’s the last RIVERINE excerpt before the release, which is tomorrow!!

This line comes from “Landmines”, originally published in the legendary Foglifter. 💙🌊

Photo by USGS
Satellite photo of a river superimposed with an excerpt from Riverine: Just imagine, millions of beings encapsulated in these tiny specks, carried by the wind and insects and hoping they won’t end up in puddles or chimneys or gutters.
December 4, 2023 at 3:19 PM
drobnik.co
And here goes the final RIVERINE blurb, by the one and only Cathy Ulrich! 💙🌊

Pre-order RIVERINE from VA Press: bit.ly/preorder-riv...

Photo by Tom Fisk
Satellite photo of a river superimposed with a blurb of Riverine by Cathy Ulrich, author of Ghosts of You, Small Burning Things: There are currents in Łukasz Drobnik’s Riverine, currents of beginnings and endings (and, oh, what endings!), loves and losses, rages and despondencies. These stories flow one into another, but always with a singular, stunning intensity, carrying the reader along with their unerring, devastating power.
December 1, 2023 at 3:48 PM
drobnik.co
This RIVERINE bit comes from “Echoes”, a micro originally published in the incredible @fracturedlit.bsky.social 💙🌊

fracturedlit.com/echoes/

Photo by NASA
Satellite photo of a river superimposed with an excerpt from Riverine: The cake bleeds, and you think of the river of blood you and your twin sister swam in.
November 29, 2023 at 2:58 PM
drobnik.co
And here’s another RIVERINE blurb.

Thank you @rosshowalter.bsky.social for your kind words 💙🌊

Photo by Tom Fisk
Satellite photo of a river superimposed with a blurb of Riverine by Ross Showalter: With an unflinching eye and a surgically precise hand, Łukasz Drobnik guides us through twenty-five stories that grapple with grief, mortality, and the end of days. Drobnik is a brave, brilliant writer, showing what unites us even as he takes the cells of civilization apart. The apocalyptic uncanny and the heartbreakingly familiar excavated in these stories make Riverine a feast of a story collection, startling, delicious, and eerily prismatic.
November 27, 2023 at 3:09 PM
drobnik.co
This excerpt comes from a brand new story titled “Hydrogen and Diamonds”.

You’ll be able to read it in RIVERINE in December! 💙🌊

Pre-order here: bit.ly/preorder-riv...

Photo by NASA
Satellite photo of a river superimposed with an excerpt from Riverine: Neptune’s heart is mostly ices and rock, ices being what smart people call water, ammonia, methane, and the like.
November 23, 2023 at 4:17 PM
drobnik.co
Here’s another bit of RIVERINE. This one comes from “Vacuoles”, a flash fiction originally published in @splitlipthemag.bsky.social.

You can read the story here: splitlipthemag.com/flash/0122/luk…

Photo by USGS
Satellite photo of a river superimposed with an excerpt from Riverine: Your love, a trap door under a trap door under a trap door. Your hands unpacking all the years now gone.
November 22, 2023 at 3:15 PM
drobnik.co
Huge thanks to @tarazambrano.bsky.social for blurbing RIVERINE so beautifully 💙🌊

You’ll be able to read the collection in December.
Satellite photo of a river superimposed with a blurb of Riverine by Tara Isabel Zambrano, Author of Death, Desire, and Other Destinations: Ingenious and original in its execution, Riverine is a collection of short shorts that is richly imagined and compelling. In twenty-five vibrant pieces, Łukasz Drobnik shows us a vision of ourselves that remains with us long after they are finished. Whether it is about what Neptune could hold or the death of a pregnant sperm whale to an endless loop of life and simulations within a heart, the characters in these restrained spaces crackle with light and self-awareness, and about what makes life a murky and joyful ride.
November 17, 2023 at 3:59 PM
drobnik.co
Here's your first glimpse into RIVERINE, my flash fiction collection forthcoming in December from VA Press.

Pre-order here: bit.ly/preorder-riv...
Satellite photo of a river superimposed with an excerpt from Riverine: I like to think you became that river, filling its channel from source to mouth, spreading further out to the bay, to the sea, to the ocean, wrapping the Earth with a thick mantle of water and now sending me this beached whale as a belated goodbye.
November 14, 2023 at 2:17 PM