Extinction Capital of the World: Stories

Named a Best Book of 2025 by: Esquire * Electric Literature * Debutiful

A Recommended Read from: Vulture * Oprah Daily * Our Culture * LitHub * Debutiful * LGBTQ Reads * Alta Journal * Autostraddle * BookRiot

Magnetic, haunting, and tender, Extinction Capital of the World is a stunning portrait of Hawai’i—and a powerful meditation on family, queer love, and community amid imperialism and environmental collapse.

In ten vibrant, affecting stories, Mariah Rigg immerses readers in contemporary Hawai’i. By turns heartbreaking and hopeful, these stories of love, longing, and grief are fierce dispatches from a state haunted by the specter of colonization, a precious biome under constant threat.

An older man grapples with the American-weapons research conducted on a neighboring island that reverberates through his entire life. A pregnant woman seeks belonging while poaching flowers in the rainforest with her partner’s mother. Two teenage girls find love during a summer spent on Midway Atoll. A young woman returns home to O’ahu following a breakup and reconnects with her estranged father and the island itself.

Linked by both place and character, Rigg’s stories illuminate the exotification and commodification of Hawai’i in the American mythos. Extinction Capital of the World is an environmental love letter to the Hawaiian Islands and an indelible portrayal of the people who inhabit them—marking the arrival of an exciting new voice in contemporary fiction.

"Hawaii has one of the most fascinating cultural histories in the world, and this short story collection demonstrates how it continues to impact the daily life of Hawaiians across the archipelago, including Natives and settlers and their ancestors. Particularly interesting here is how Rigg depicts the ripple effects of colonization over time, in both extraordinary and mundane ways, from the collapse of ecosystems to the rifts in individual families. Rigg’s writing is smooth, enveloping, and surprising." - Esquire, "Best Books of 2025 (So Far)"

“Rigg’s voice is sharp and engrossing, her characters cunning but affable. This is climate fiction at its most humane and emotionally rich.”  - Vulture, "28 Books We Can't Wait to Read This Summer"

“In ten all-absorbing, gentle, and melancholy short stories, Mariah Rigg’s debut Extinction Capital of the World is an ode to modern life on the Hawaiian Islands. . . . Rigg writes eloquently and carefully, her prose containing a beat and rhythm that sound just as heartfelt as it does strong, demanding attention. . . . Stories that leave me longing, thinking, mourning what could have been, and grateful for its existence at all, like those in [this collection], remind me of what is enough.” - Chicago Review of Books

“Rigg is an absolutely beautiful writer and a master of subtext; the conversations between her characters crackle with history and deep feelings. . . . A gorgeous, compelling collection that unspools the little-known history of Hawai’i and shows how queerness operates in the furthest-flung American state.” - Oprah Daily, “8 Pride Month Books that Celebrate Queer Joy”

“This debut collection brilliantly and hopefully contests the finality of any story.” - Kirkus

“A heartbreaking and empathetic debut, this collection of stories set in contemporary Hawaii is a tribute to the beauty and fragility of the islands, and a warning against colonization and climate change.” - Ms. magazine

“[A] promising debut collection. . . . Rigg explores mortality with a mix of kitchen-sink realism. . . and stylistic flourish. . . . These sad but vivid stories radiate with intelligence.” - Publishers Weekly

“Hawai'i, haunting and beautiful, becomes the undisputed star in this short-story collection. . . . Rigg's debut is a vibrant tribute to [the Islands] and the love that's fostered on its lands.” - Booklist

"Affecting . . . This powerful collection of slice-of-life short stories with complete arcs is told in evocative language and with care and empathy." - Library Journal

“Electrifying . . . A masterful debut collection . . . [Rigg] skillfully intertwines Hawai'i’s complicated history of military abuse, missionary usurpation, colonial legacy, invasive tourism, ecological destruction . . . A wondrous literary gift.” - Shelf Awareness

“Rigg’s debut story collection takes us to modern Hawai'i—a place still reeling from the impacts of colonization and dealing with environmental loss. These stories touch on love, heartbreak, and everything in between, all set against the backdrop of the Hawaiian Islands.” - Alta Journal

“Extinction Capital of the World is a multigenerational, environmental love letter. . . . [Rigg] maps out [a] complex web of feelings . . . about Hawai‘i: its susceptibility to climate change, its long history of militarization and imperialism (and our participation in that lineage), and the deep emotions that so many of us hold for the land.” - Nina Michiko Tam for Write or Die Mag

"Mariah Rigg’s debut collection humors and haunts in its gorgeous exploration of Hawai’i. From the deep and violent impacts of imperialism to young queer love to breakups, daddy issues, and eco-horror, like any good short fiction collection, this one will take you on a complex journey of emotions and curiosities. I’ve been looking forward to this one’s release for a long time." - Autostraddle

“These ten stories expertly explore desire, loss, displacement, and environmental fragility across characters throughout Hawai'i . . . Electric and lyrical. Rigg’s a master short story writer with unbelievable skill.” - Debutiful

“From debut author Mariah Rigg comes a collection of short stories interrogating the commodification and fetishization of Hawai'i in the American myths, both a love letter to the islands and a warning for future consequences of colonization and climate catastrophe.” - Our Culture Mag, “Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2025”

"This collection of short stories traces generations of characters living in Hawai’i, including a bittersweet summer romance between two teen girls who are the only ones their age on a tiny island and a story of a professional kayaker for falls for his Soviet competitor. I would recommend reading this slowly, spacing out the stories. They’re well written, thoughtful, and often melancholic. Learn more about “the extinction capital of the world” while immersing yourself in this memorable collection." - Book Riot

“In Extinction Capital of the World, Mariah Rigg traces the contours of contemporary Hawai'i with exquisite precision and grace. Across these ten stories, she shows how desire anchors us to vanishing landscapes, and how the heart finds its coordinates even as familiar worlds shift beneath our feet. These are breathtakingly beautiful dispatches from the frontlines of an imperiled ecosystem, rendered with astonishing clarity." - Kimberly King Parsons, National Book Award-nominated author of Black Light and We Were the Universe

“Extinction Capital of the World is the queer ecological collection of my dreams. Liberated of the western constraint of linearity, these ten stories blissfully cast forward and loop back, attending to all the small and significant ways our choices reverberate across time, across landscapes, across species. Whether moving through the galleries of the Honolulu Museum of Art or navigating the open waters of Ka?iwi Channel, the characters of Rigg’s world are as vibrant and diverse as the many species populating these pages. Extinction Capital of the World is incisive and deeply compassionate, and Rigg is an extraordinary storyteller.”

"A heartbreaking collection of queer girlhood that carries the echo of generations, the failure and regrets of children and parents. It aches and aches and aches and then blossoms with the sweep of time, catastrophe, disaster, cruelty, death. Mariah Rigg's written a stunning debut. I love this book." - Casey Plett, author of Little Fish