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November 18, 2024 11:12 AM Subscribe
An Argentinian ghost story, climate fiction for a better future, guidance on writing and the writing life, a satellite murder mystery, a resource for parents of children undergoing gender affirming care, the 2024 GG's, and more: a roundup of more than 50 new and forthcoming small press books (previously).
NEW:
The Articulations / Amouroboros by Elizabeth K. Switaj & Amelia K. (Kernpunkt Press, 12 Nov 2024): Two poetry collections in one book. The Articulations explores ideas of the body through lines gleaned from medical texts written prior to 1910. Amouroboros, comprised of journal entries written during and after an abusive relationship, examines what remains and what leaves in a love that eats itself. (Asterism)
The Autobiography of Cassandra, Princess and Prophetess of Troy by Ursule Molinaro (McPherson & Co, 8 Nov 2024): A reprint of the 1992 novel telling the Homeric story of Troy from the perspective of the woman who was condemned not to be believed — the perfect spokesperson for a contemporary feminist novel. (Amazon; Asterism)
Back to the Well: An Argentinian Ghost Story by Gustavo Bondoni (Guardbridge Books, Oct 2024): A young couple on vacation from Buenos Aires finds a quaint village at the foothills of the Andes, which engulfs them with its dark secret. As echoes of the past merge with the present, the couple fights for life and sanity against horrors that were once buried but have now emerged into the night. A spooky tale of ghosts and old atrocities, infused with the history of the country and the colors of the dusty villages of the South American countryside. (Amazon; Bookshop)
A Boy's Guide to Outer Space by Peter Selgin (Regal House Publishing, 12 Nov 2024): 1963. Hattertown, Connecticut. Leo "Half" Napoli mourns his dead hat factory worker father while daydreaming of being the first man on the moon and thereby "partaking of something of the infinite." Meanwhile, he and his fellow Back Shop Boys (their fathers all worked in the dangerous, mercury-fume-laden back shops of hat factories) seek to learn the identity of the mysterious Man in Blue, who wanders the town collecting odd items in his rucksack. (Amazon; Bookshop)
The Braille Encyclopedia: Brief Essays on Altered Sight by Naomi Cohn (Rose Metal, 23 Oct 2024): Told in the form of imagined alphabetical encyclopedia entries, this meditation on progressive vision loss examines and illuminates Cohn's at first halting then avid embrace of braille as part of relearning to read and write as an adult. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
Brutal Companion by Ruben Quesada (Barrow Street, 15 Oct 2024): Drawing from his own experiences as a gay man, the poet delves unflinchingly into memories of desire, trauma, and self-discovery against the backdrop of an often unforgiving world. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
The Burrow by Melanie Cheng (Tin House, 12 Nov 2024): A wise and moving story about a family navigating grief, hope, and healing through a bond with a new pet rabbit. (Amazon)
Certain Shelter by Abbie Kiefer (June Road, 22 Oct 2024): A clear-eyed portrait of an aging Maine mill town and a larger reflection on memory, making, and the meaning of home. What sources of solace and stability remain amid the ruins of industry, after the death of a parent, while raising children in an uncertain time alongside ghosts of the past? This book is a transcendent exploration of personal and communal responses to loss, concerned with the necessary task of finding shelter and making one’s way in an altered world. (Amazon; Asterism)
Crash Landing by Li Charmaine Anne (Annick Press, 16 Apr 2024): The newest winner of the Governor General’s Award for Young People’s Literature – Text. This YA debut is a searing ode to queer identity, growing up in an immigrant community, and carving a place for yourself in the world with the help of your friends. (Amazon; Bookshop)
The Crawling Moon: Queer Tales of Inescapable Dread edited by Dave Ring (Neon Hemlock, 30 July 2024): Work from Sage Agee, Bendi Barrett, Winifred Burton, Amelia Burton, Jess Cho, Lyndall Clipstone, Donyae Coles, Dare Segun Falowo, Caro Jansen, Yeonsoo Kim, Marianne Kirby, M.L. Krishnan, Jes Malitoris, Chris McCartney, KC Mead-Brewer, Suzan Palumbo, Hailey Piper, E. Saxey, Jordan Shiveley, Caitlin Starling, Natalia Theodoridou, v.f. Thompson, E. Catherine Tobler, Shaoni C. White, Cynthia Zhang, and Tina Zhu. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
Cutover Capitalism: The Industrialization of the Northern Forest by Jason L. Newton (West Virginia UP, Oct 2024): An innovative historical study that combines methodological approaches from labor history, environmental history, and the new history of capitalism. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Dangerous Fictions: The Fear of Fantasy and the Invention of Reality by Lyta Gold (Soft Skull, 29 Oct 2024): In a political moment when social panics over literature are at their peak, Dangerous Fictions is a mind-expanding treatise on the nature of fictional stories as cultural battlegrounds for power. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Daughter of the Wormwood Star by Paul Jessup (Underland Press, 8 Oct 2024): After surviving a brutal and senseless attack on the grounds of her university, Clara finds herself bonded in an inexplicable way with other survivors. They call themselves the “Knot,” and together they discover some doors should not be opened and some promises should never be made. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Echoes by Will Sergeant, cofounder and guitarist of Echo and the Bunnymen (Third Man Books, 21 May 2024): Echoes is the follow up memoir to Bunnyman and covers the early days of Echo and the Bunnymen through the release of their first albums and first tour. (Amazon; Bookshop)
An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping edited by Erin Segal, Chris Hoff, and Julie Cho (Thick Press, 18 Nov 2024): From "abundance" to "zinemaking," An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping invites the reader to wander through a collection of interconnected entries on helping and healing by over 200 contributors from the worlds of social work and family therapy; art and design; body work and witchery; organizing and education; and more. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
Finding Otipemisiwak: The People Who Own Themselves by (Arsenal Pulp, 8 Oct 2024): Forcibly removed from her Indigenous family as a child, Andrea Currie journeys back to her Nation and the truth of who she is. (Amazon; Bookshop)
A Finger in the Fishes Mouth by Derek Jarman (Prototype, 6 Nov 2024): A facsimile edition of Derek Jarman’s sole, early, extremely rare poetry book, originally published in 1972. (Amazon; Asterism)
First Aid for Choking Victims: Stories by Matthew Zanoni Müller (Malarkey Books, 12 Nov 2024): In his debut solo short story collection, Müller highlights the cracks in the smiles of well-meaning neighbors, picks at the scabs of the hidden wounds in that “perfect family,” and exposes the ugliest parts of ourselves by reflecting them back to us through his complex and emotionally nuanced characters. (Amazon; Asterism; Bookshop)
A Little Book to Save Humanity by Dana C. Ackley, PhD (The EQ Press, 15 Oct 2024): Shows how the human brain can get any of us into deep trouble — and how the thoughtful use of emotions can save us from ourselves. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
Masquerade by Mike Fu (Tin House, 29 Oct 2024): Set between New York and Shanghai, Masquerade is a queer coming-of-age mystery about a lovelorn bartender and his complex friendship with a volatile artist. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future (Milkweed Editions, 22 October 2024): Otherworldly but remarkably familiar, ancestral but firmly rooted in alternate futures, these twelve innovative stories—winners of the Imagine 2200 climate fiction contest organized by Grist—offer a glimpse of a future built on sustainability, inclusivity, and justice. Authors include Louis Evans, Jamie Liu, Eric Lockley, Susan Kay Quinn, and Nadine Tomlinson. (Amazon; Bookshop)
The Monsters Are Here by Lori D'Angelo (ELJ Editions, 31 Oct 2024): The thirty stories in this collection give the reader Kelly Link meets Bram Stoker and Nathaniel Hawthorne in a forest or an alternative universe with aliens. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
My Women (128 Lit, 1 Oct 2024): Yuliia Iliukha's My Women, translated from Ukrainian by Hanna Leliv, is an urgent and poignant story collection of women confronted by the countless brutalities of war. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
Nights Too Short to Dance by "icon of queer literature" Marie-Claire Blais, translated by Katia Grubisic (Second Story Press, 17 Oct 2023): The newest winner of the Governor General’s Award for Translation. René suddenly feels like an old man. Recovering at home after an illness, his mind will not leave the past. He is both comforted and annoyed by the officious care provided by his Russian nurse, who keeps referring to him as a woman. (Amazon; Bookshop)
No More Flowers by Stephanie Cawley (Birds, LLC, Oct 2024): Poetry serves as a resistance against suffering—their own, their loved ones’, humanity’s. A protest against meaninglessness. An antidote. The poems in No More Flowers believe in their ability to affect consequences with language, while being self-aware enough to know how absurd that belief is. (publisher)
Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life by Sofia Samatar (Soft Skull, 13 Aug 2024): Rooted in an epistolary relationship between Samatar and a friend and fellow writer, this collection of meditations traces Samatar’s attempt to rediscover the intimacy of writing. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Ox Lost, Snow Deep by Alice Burdick (Anvil Press, 30 Nov 2024): 14 long poems range from confessional narrative to collage to surrealism, exploring representations of history, both public and personal, and within that, they probe what is and is not considered important. (Amazon; Asterism)
Permission to Settle by Holly Flauto (Anvil Press, 30 Oct 2024): Fills in the blanks of the application for Permanent Residency with a series of memoir-based poems, capturing common aspects of immigration while exploring the sense of privilege that comes from the geographically and culturally close immigration journey from the US to Canada as a modern-day settler. (Amazon; Asterism)
The Reeds: A Novel by Arjun Basu (ECW Press, 15 Oct 2024): Set in Montreal’s west end, The Reeds is about family, love, and nostalgia while exploring the dehumanization of work and the power of art against a backdrop of mid-century modern furniture, shag carpeting, the relentlessness of change, gentrification, and Korean fried chicken. (Amazon)
The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy (Feminist Press, 24 Sept 2024): In the gripping first novel in the Daughters of the Empty Throne trilogy, author Margaret Killjoy spins a tale of earth magic, power struggle, and self-invention in a powerful story of trans witchcraft. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Satellite Image by Michelle Berry (Buckrider Books/Wolsak & Wynn, 22 Oct 2024): The night before they move from the bustling, expensive rat race of the city to a sleepy, innocent, affordable small town two hours away, Ginny and Matt decide to look up their new home on a satellite image website. When they see what appears to be a body lying in their new backyard everything changes and an uneasy chain of events is set into motion. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Scientific Marvel by Chimwemwe Undi (House of Anansi Press, 2 Apr 2024): The newest winner of the Governor General's Award for Poetry. Marked by rhythmic drive, humour, and surprise, Undi’s poems consider what is left out from the history and ongoing realities of Winnipeg, Manitoba. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Skating Wild on an Inland Sea by Jean E. Pendziwol and illustrated by Todd Stewart (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 3 Oct 2023): The newest winner of the Governor General’s Award for Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books. Two children wake up to hear Lake Superior singing, then the wind begins wailing … or is it a wolf? They bundle up and venture out into the cold, carrying their skates. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Songs for the Land-Bound by Violeta Garcia-Mendoza (June Road, 24 Sept 2024): A lyrical and resonant new songbook for survival. Sounding out the constraints and anxieties of midlife and motherhood in a period of personal and planetary vulnerability, these poems speak to the persistence of nature, creativity, and love as necessary sources of hope and beauty. This is a book about wildness and wonder. (Amazon; Asterism)
Tales & Transformations: Stories by Melissa Mead (Guardbridge Books, 11 Oct 2024): A posthumous collection of an enchanting author. She wrote twisted fairy tales, magical fantasy, and emotional stories of transformation. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Tales of Mother Earth and Her Children by Annie Houston, illustrations by Annie Houston (Tierra Publishing, 1 Nov 2024): In despair that her Earth is out of balance, Mother Earth travels to 6 habitable continents to seek help from children, ages 7 to 14. Young readers will find out about environmental issues as well as something about each of the six continents. (Amazon; Itaska)
There Is Violence and There Is Righteous Violence and There Is Death, or the Born-Again Crow by Caleigh Crow (Playwrights Canada Press, 31 Oct 2023): The newest winner of the Governor General’s Award for Drama. (Amazon; Bookshop)
This Ain't No Disco: The Story of CBGB by Roman Kozak with photos by Ebet Roberts (Trouser Press Books, 15 Oct 2024): Originally published in 1988 and out of print for decades, This Ain't No Disco tells the real story of CBGB, the birthplace and incubator of American punk and new wave music. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
Under the Eye of the Big Bird: A Novel by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda (Soft Skull, 3 Sept 2024): From one of Japan's most brilliant and sensitive contemporary novelists, this speculative fiction masterpiece envisions an Earth where humans are nearing extinction, and rewrites our understanding of reproduction, ecology, evolution, artificial intelligence, communal life, creation, love, and the future of humanity. (Amazon; Bookshop)
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Plus, Ugly Duckling Presse released all of these books on 15 November: Against the Regime of the Fluent by Venezuelan writer Natasha Tiniacos, translated by Rebeca Alderete Baca, Black Box Named Like to Me by Mexican writer Diana Garza Islas, translated by Cal Paule, The Glass Clouding by Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki, translated by Abby Ryder-Huth, Lemonade: A Paranormal Investigation by Colombian writer Catalina Vargas Tovar, translated by Juliana Borrero, Mongrel Kampung by Indonesian writer Mikael Johani, The Month of the Flies by Argentinian writers Mirtha Dermisache and Sergio Chejfec, translated by Rebekah Smith and Silvina López Medin, and Notes of the Phantom Woman by Bulgarian poet Iana Boukova, translated by John O'Kane and Ekaterina Petrova.
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FORTHCOMING:
About Bliss: Fighting for My Trans Son's Life, Joy, and Fertility by Cristina Olivetti (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 21 Feb 2025): An amazing resource for parents of children undergoing gender affirming care, and a beautiful meditation on the euphoria and challenge of transition. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Code Noir: Fictions by Canisia Lubrin (Soft Skull Press, 4 Feb 2025): Groundbreaking, dazzling debut fiction from one of Canada’s most exciting and admired writers, winner of the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize. (Amazon; Bookshop)
An Earthquake is A Shaking of the Surface of the Earth by Anna Moschovakis (Soft Skull, 19 Nov 2024): After a seismic event leaves the world shattered, an unnamed narrator at the end of a mediocre acting career struggles to regain the ability to walk on ground that is in constant motion. When her alluring younger housemate, Tala, disappears, what had begun as an obsession grows into an impulse to kill, forcing the narrator to confront the meaning of the ruptures that have suddenly upended her life. A formidable, uncanny, and utterly unique new novel from Anna Moschovakis, winner of the 2021 International Booker Prize for translation. (Amazon; Bookshop)
How to Break an Addiction: A Method-in-a-Manifesto for Quitting Capitalism by Annie Xibos Spencer (Common Notions, 19 Nov 2024): What the opioid epidemic teaches us about the addiction at the root of our social life—and how we free ourselves from it. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Indigenous Ecocinema: Decolonizing Media Environments by Salma Monani (West Virginia UP, Dec 2024): This absorbing text is the first book-length exploration foregrounding the environmental dimensions of cinema made by Indigenous peoples, including a particularly fascinating discussion on how Indigenous cinema’s ecological entanglements are a crucial and complementary aspect of its agenda of decolonialism. (Amazon; Bookshop)
It Was Never Supposed To Be by Ben Kline (Variant Lit, 31 Dec 2024): This poetry collection revisits the rapid progress of queer marriage rights, beginning with Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the protease inhibitor cocktails, ending after Obergefell amid previously unimaginable changes, all while asking questions about the nature of social acceptance, about what it means to love, commit and marry as former and current sexual outlaws. (Asterism)
Malcolm Before X by Patrick Parr (University of Massachusetts Press, 1 Dec 2024): Drawing upon interviews, correspondence, and nearly 2000 pages of never-before-used prison records, Malcolm Before X is the definitive examination of the prison years of civil rights icon Malcolm X. (Amazon; Bookshop)
The Party & The Candidate by Kat Sandler (Playwrights Canada Press, 26 Nov 2024): In these two entwined, fast-paced plays, the hilarious goings-on behind the scenes of a controversial election chaotically unfold first at the fundraiser that will decide the party’s nominee and then months later at a debate the night before the election. (Bookshop)
Revolution in These Times: Black Panther Party Veteran Dhoruba Bin-Wahad on Antifascism, Black Liberation, and a Culture of Resistence by Dhoruba Bin-Wahad (Common Notions, Feb 2025): Lessons for the antifascist fight now and to come rooted in well-learned lessons from Black liberation. (Amazon; Bookshop)
She’s a Lamb!: A Novel by Meredith Hambrock (ECW Press, 8 Apr 2025): A darkly comic suspense, She’s a Lamb! is an edgy and incisive novel that marches toward showtime with a growing unease about the dangers of magical thinking and the depths of delusion. (Amazon; Bookshop)
This Book Is Free and Yours to Keep: Notes from the Appalachian Prison Book Project by Connie Banta, Kristin DeVault-Juelfs, Destinee Harper, Katy Ryan, Ellen Skirvin, eds. (West Virginia UP, 1 Dec 2024): A captivating collection of letters and artwork by people in prison that highlights the crucial work done by the Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP), a nonprofit that provides books to incarcerated people in West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Maryland. (Amazon; Bookshop)
The Violin with Human Strings and Other Tales of Musical Madness by Antonio Ghislanzoni, translated by Brendan and Anna Connell (Snuggly Books, 2 Dec 2024): This quartet of tales, the protagonists of which are a violinist, a pianist, a trumpet player, and a singer, are by turns horrific, humorous, bizarre, and touching, and bring to the modern reader some of the small masterpieces of one of Italy’s great writers, who is certainly deserving of renewed recognition. (Amazon; Asterism; Bookshop)
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Plus, Eulalia Books, which publishes contemporary poetry from Latin America, has three titles coming out on 4 December, available now for pre-order: Guerrilla Blooms by indigenous writer Daniela Catrileo, winner of the 2019 Santiago Municipal Literature Prize, written in both Spanish and Mapudungun and now available in English by translator Edith Adams, The Mistaken Place of Things by Gabriela Aguirre, translated by Laura Cesarco Eglin, and Waking in the Sahara by Zaira Pacheco, translated by Lauren Shapiro; and, Middle Creek Publishing has three books of poetry coming out in March 2025 and available now for pre-order: Accidental Hope by Colorado writer Diana Kurniawan, Halchita Red by Navajo writer Paige Buffington, and Walking the Burn by NFSPS award-winning poet Rachel Kellum.
NEW:
The Articulations / Amouroboros by Elizabeth K. Switaj & Amelia K. (Kernpunkt Press, 12 Nov 2024): Two poetry collections in one book. The Articulations explores ideas of the body through lines gleaned from medical texts written prior to 1910. Amouroboros, comprised of journal entries written during and after an abusive relationship, examines what remains and what leaves in a love that eats itself. (Asterism)
The Autobiography of Cassandra, Princess and Prophetess of Troy by Ursule Molinaro (McPherson & Co, 8 Nov 2024): A reprint of the 1992 novel telling the Homeric story of Troy from the perspective of the woman who was condemned not to be believed — the perfect spokesperson for a contemporary feminist novel. (Amazon; Asterism)
Back to the Well: An Argentinian Ghost Story by Gustavo Bondoni (Guardbridge Books, Oct 2024): A young couple on vacation from Buenos Aires finds a quaint village at the foothills of the Andes, which engulfs them with its dark secret. As echoes of the past merge with the present, the couple fights for life and sanity against horrors that were once buried but have now emerged into the night. A spooky tale of ghosts and old atrocities, infused with the history of the country and the colors of the dusty villages of the South American countryside. (Amazon; Bookshop)
A Boy's Guide to Outer Space by Peter Selgin (Regal House Publishing, 12 Nov 2024): 1963. Hattertown, Connecticut. Leo "Half" Napoli mourns his dead hat factory worker father while daydreaming of being the first man on the moon and thereby "partaking of something of the infinite." Meanwhile, he and his fellow Back Shop Boys (their fathers all worked in the dangerous, mercury-fume-laden back shops of hat factories) seek to learn the identity of the mysterious Man in Blue, who wanders the town collecting odd items in his rucksack. (Amazon; Bookshop)
The Braille Encyclopedia: Brief Essays on Altered Sight by Naomi Cohn (Rose Metal, 23 Oct 2024): Told in the form of imagined alphabetical encyclopedia entries, this meditation on progressive vision loss examines and illuminates Cohn's at first halting then avid embrace of braille as part of relearning to read and write as an adult. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
Brutal Companion by Ruben Quesada (Barrow Street, 15 Oct 2024): Drawing from his own experiences as a gay man, the poet delves unflinchingly into memories of desire, trauma, and self-discovery against the backdrop of an often unforgiving world. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
The Burrow by Melanie Cheng (Tin House, 12 Nov 2024): A wise and moving story about a family navigating grief, hope, and healing through a bond with a new pet rabbit. (Amazon)
Certain Shelter by Abbie Kiefer (June Road, 22 Oct 2024): A clear-eyed portrait of an aging Maine mill town and a larger reflection on memory, making, and the meaning of home. What sources of solace and stability remain amid the ruins of industry, after the death of a parent, while raising children in an uncertain time alongside ghosts of the past? This book is a transcendent exploration of personal and communal responses to loss, concerned with the necessary task of finding shelter and making one’s way in an altered world. (Amazon; Asterism)
Crash Landing by Li Charmaine Anne (Annick Press, 16 Apr 2024): The newest winner of the Governor General’s Award for Young People’s Literature – Text. This YA debut is a searing ode to queer identity, growing up in an immigrant community, and carving a place for yourself in the world with the help of your friends. (Amazon; Bookshop)
The Crawling Moon: Queer Tales of Inescapable Dread edited by Dave Ring (Neon Hemlock, 30 July 2024): Work from Sage Agee, Bendi Barrett, Winifred Burton, Amelia Burton, Jess Cho, Lyndall Clipstone, Donyae Coles, Dare Segun Falowo, Caro Jansen, Yeonsoo Kim, Marianne Kirby, M.L. Krishnan, Jes Malitoris, Chris McCartney, KC Mead-Brewer, Suzan Palumbo, Hailey Piper, E. Saxey, Jordan Shiveley, Caitlin Starling, Natalia Theodoridou, v.f. Thompson, E. Catherine Tobler, Shaoni C. White, Cynthia Zhang, and Tina Zhu. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
Cutover Capitalism: The Industrialization of the Northern Forest by Jason L. Newton (West Virginia UP, Oct 2024): An innovative historical study that combines methodological approaches from labor history, environmental history, and the new history of capitalism. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Dangerous Fictions: The Fear of Fantasy and the Invention of Reality by Lyta Gold (Soft Skull, 29 Oct 2024): In a political moment when social panics over literature are at their peak, Dangerous Fictions is a mind-expanding treatise on the nature of fictional stories as cultural battlegrounds for power. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Daughter of the Wormwood Star by Paul Jessup (Underland Press, 8 Oct 2024): After surviving a brutal and senseless attack on the grounds of her university, Clara finds herself bonded in an inexplicable way with other survivors. They call themselves the “Knot,” and together they discover some doors should not be opened and some promises should never be made. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Echoes by Will Sergeant, cofounder and guitarist of Echo and the Bunnymen (Third Man Books, 21 May 2024): Echoes is the follow up memoir to Bunnyman and covers the early days of Echo and the Bunnymen through the release of their first albums and first tour. (Amazon; Bookshop)
An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping edited by Erin Segal, Chris Hoff, and Julie Cho (Thick Press, 18 Nov 2024): From "abundance" to "zinemaking," An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping invites the reader to wander through a collection of interconnected entries on helping and healing by over 200 contributors from the worlds of social work and family therapy; art and design; body work and witchery; organizing and education; and more. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
Finding Otipemisiwak: The People Who Own Themselves by (Arsenal Pulp, 8 Oct 2024): Forcibly removed from her Indigenous family as a child, Andrea Currie journeys back to her Nation and the truth of who she is. (Amazon; Bookshop)
A Finger in the Fishes Mouth by Derek Jarman (Prototype, 6 Nov 2024): A facsimile edition of Derek Jarman’s sole, early, extremely rare poetry book, originally published in 1972. (Amazon; Asterism)
First Aid for Choking Victims: Stories by Matthew Zanoni Müller (Malarkey Books, 12 Nov 2024): In his debut solo short story collection, Müller highlights the cracks in the smiles of well-meaning neighbors, picks at the scabs of the hidden wounds in that “perfect family,” and exposes the ugliest parts of ourselves by reflecting them back to us through his complex and emotionally nuanced characters. (Amazon; Asterism; Bookshop)
A Little Book to Save Humanity by Dana C. Ackley, PhD (The EQ Press, 15 Oct 2024): Shows how the human brain can get any of us into deep trouble — and how the thoughtful use of emotions can save us from ourselves. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
Masquerade by Mike Fu (Tin House, 29 Oct 2024): Set between New York and Shanghai, Masquerade is a queer coming-of-age mystery about a lovelorn bartender and his complex friendship with a volatile artist. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future (Milkweed Editions, 22 October 2024): Otherworldly but remarkably familiar, ancestral but firmly rooted in alternate futures, these twelve innovative stories—winners of the Imagine 2200 climate fiction contest organized by Grist—offer a glimpse of a future built on sustainability, inclusivity, and justice. Authors include Louis Evans, Jamie Liu, Eric Lockley, Susan Kay Quinn, and Nadine Tomlinson. (Amazon; Bookshop)
The Monsters Are Here by Lori D'Angelo (ELJ Editions, 31 Oct 2024): The thirty stories in this collection give the reader Kelly Link meets Bram Stoker and Nathaniel Hawthorne in a forest or an alternative universe with aliens. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
My Women (128 Lit, 1 Oct 2024): Yuliia Iliukha's My Women, translated from Ukrainian by Hanna Leliv, is an urgent and poignant story collection of women confronted by the countless brutalities of war. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
Nights Too Short to Dance by "icon of queer literature" Marie-Claire Blais, translated by Katia Grubisic (Second Story Press, 17 Oct 2023): The newest winner of the Governor General’s Award for Translation. René suddenly feels like an old man. Recovering at home after an illness, his mind will not leave the past. He is both comforted and annoyed by the officious care provided by his Russian nurse, who keeps referring to him as a woman. (Amazon; Bookshop)
No More Flowers by Stephanie Cawley (Birds, LLC, Oct 2024): Poetry serves as a resistance against suffering—their own, their loved ones’, humanity’s. A protest against meaninglessness. An antidote. The poems in No More Flowers believe in their ability to affect consequences with language, while being self-aware enough to know how absurd that belief is. (publisher)
Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life by Sofia Samatar (Soft Skull, 13 Aug 2024): Rooted in an epistolary relationship between Samatar and a friend and fellow writer, this collection of meditations traces Samatar’s attempt to rediscover the intimacy of writing. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Ox Lost, Snow Deep by Alice Burdick (Anvil Press, 30 Nov 2024): 14 long poems range from confessional narrative to collage to surrealism, exploring representations of history, both public and personal, and within that, they probe what is and is not considered important. (Amazon; Asterism)
Permission to Settle by Holly Flauto (Anvil Press, 30 Oct 2024): Fills in the blanks of the application for Permanent Residency with a series of memoir-based poems, capturing common aspects of immigration while exploring the sense of privilege that comes from the geographically and culturally close immigration journey from the US to Canada as a modern-day settler. (Amazon; Asterism)
The Reeds: A Novel by Arjun Basu (ECW Press, 15 Oct 2024): Set in Montreal’s west end, The Reeds is about family, love, and nostalgia while exploring the dehumanization of work and the power of art against a backdrop of mid-century modern furniture, shag carpeting, the relentlessness of change, gentrification, and Korean fried chicken. (Amazon)
The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy (Feminist Press, 24 Sept 2024): In the gripping first novel in the Daughters of the Empty Throne trilogy, author Margaret Killjoy spins a tale of earth magic, power struggle, and self-invention in a powerful story of trans witchcraft. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Satellite Image by Michelle Berry (Buckrider Books/Wolsak & Wynn, 22 Oct 2024): The night before they move from the bustling, expensive rat race of the city to a sleepy, innocent, affordable small town two hours away, Ginny and Matt decide to look up their new home on a satellite image website. When they see what appears to be a body lying in their new backyard everything changes and an uneasy chain of events is set into motion. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Scientific Marvel by Chimwemwe Undi (House of Anansi Press, 2 Apr 2024): The newest winner of the Governor General's Award for Poetry. Marked by rhythmic drive, humour, and surprise, Undi’s poems consider what is left out from the history and ongoing realities of Winnipeg, Manitoba. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Skating Wild on an Inland Sea by Jean E. Pendziwol and illustrated by Todd Stewart (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 3 Oct 2023): The newest winner of the Governor General’s Award for Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books. Two children wake up to hear Lake Superior singing, then the wind begins wailing … or is it a wolf? They bundle up and venture out into the cold, carrying their skates. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Songs for the Land-Bound by Violeta Garcia-Mendoza (June Road, 24 Sept 2024): A lyrical and resonant new songbook for survival. Sounding out the constraints and anxieties of midlife and motherhood in a period of personal and planetary vulnerability, these poems speak to the persistence of nature, creativity, and love as necessary sources of hope and beauty. This is a book about wildness and wonder. (Amazon; Asterism)
Tales & Transformations: Stories by Melissa Mead (Guardbridge Books, 11 Oct 2024): A posthumous collection of an enchanting author. She wrote twisted fairy tales, magical fantasy, and emotional stories of transformation. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Tales of Mother Earth and Her Children by Annie Houston, illustrations by Annie Houston (Tierra Publishing, 1 Nov 2024): In despair that her Earth is out of balance, Mother Earth travels to 6 habitable continents to seek help from children, ages 7 to 14. Young readers will find out about environmental issues as well as something about each of the six continents. (Amazon; Itaska)
There Is Violence and There Is Righteous Violence and There Is Death, or the Born-Again Crow by Caleigh Crow (Playwrights Canada Press, 31 Oct 2023): The newest winner of the Governor General’s Award for Drama. (Amazon; Bookshop)
This Ain't No Disco: The Story of CBGB by Roman Kozak with photos by Ebet Roberts (Trouser Press Books, 15 Oct 2024): Originally published in 1988 and out of print for decades, This Ain't No Disco tells the real story of CBGB, the birthplace and incubator of American punk and new wave music. (Amazon; Bookshop; Itaska)
Under the Eye of the Big Bird: A Novel by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda (Soft Skull, 3 Sept 2024): From one of Japan's most brilliant and sensitive contemporary novelists, this speculative fiction masterpiece envisions an Earth where humans are nearing extinction, and rewrites our understanding of reproduction, ecology, evolution, artificial intelligence, communal life, creation, love, and the future of humanity. (Amazon; Bookshop)
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Plus, Ugly Duckling Presse released all of these books on 15 November: Against the Regime of the Fluent by Venezuelan writer Natasha Tiniacos, translated by Rebeca Alderete Baca, Black Box Named Like to Me by Mexican writer Diana Garza Islas, translated by Cal Paule, The Glass Clouding by Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki, translated by Abby Ryder-Huth, Lemonade: A Paranormal Investigation by Colombian writer Catalina Vargas Tovar, translated by Juliana Borrero, Mongrel Kampung by Indonesian writer Mikael Johani, The Month of the Flies by Argentinian writers Mirtha Dermisache and Sergio Chejfec, translated by Rebekah Smith and Silvina López Medin, and Notes of the Phantom Woman by Bulgarian poet Iana Boukova, translated by John O'Kane and Ekaterina Petrova.
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FORTHCOMING:
About Bliss: Fighting for My Trans Son's Life, Joy, and Fertility by Cristina Olivetti (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 21 Feb 2025): An amazing resource for parents of children undergoing gender affirming care, and a beautiful meditation on the euphoria and challenge of transition. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Code Noir: Fictions by Canisia Lubrin (Soft Skull Press, 4 Feb 2025): Groundbreaking, dazzling debut fiction from one of Canada’s most exciting and admired writers, winner of the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize. (Amazon; Bookshop)
An Earthquake is A Shaking of the Surface of the Earth by Anna Moschovakis (Soft Skull, 19 Nov 2024): After a seismic event leaves the world shattered, an unnamed narrator at the end of a mediocre acting career struggles to regain the ability to walk on ground that is in constant motion. When her alluring younger housemate, Tala, disappears, what had begun as an obsession grows into an impulse to kill, forcing the narrator to confront the meaning of the ruptures that have suddenly upended her life. A formidable, uncanny, and utterly unique new novel from Anna Moschovakis, winner of the 2021 International Booker Prize for translation. (Amazon; Bookshop)
How to Break an Addiction: A Method-in-a-Manifesto for Quitting Capitalism by Annie Xibos Spencer (Common Notions, 19 Nov 2024): What the opioid epidemic teaches us about the addiction at the root of our social life—and how we free ourselves from it. (Amazon; Bookshop)
Indigenous Ecocinema: Decolonizing Media Environments by Salma Monani (West Virginia UP, Dec 2024): This absorbing text is the first book-length exploration foregrounding the environmental dimensions of cinema made by Indigenous peoples, including a particularly fascinating discussion on how Indigenous cinema’s ecological entanglements are a crucial and complementary aspect of its agenda of decolonialism. (Amazon; Bookshop)
It Was Never Supposed To Be by Ben Kline (Variant Lit, 31 Dec 2024): This poetry collection revisits the rapid progress of queer marriage rights, beginning with Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the protease inhibitor cocktails, ending after Obergefell amid previously unimaginable changes, all while asking questions about the nature of social acceptance, about what it means to love, commit and marry as former and current sexual outlaws. (Asterism)
Malcolm Before X by Patrick Parr (University of Massachusetts Press, 1 Dec 2024): Drawing upon interviews, correspondence, and nearly 2000 pages of never-before-used prison records, Malcolm Before X is the definitive examination of the prison years of civil rights icon Malcolm X. (Amazon; Bookshop)
The Party & The Candidate by Kat Sandler (Playwrights Canada Press, 26 Nov 2024): In these two entwined, fast-paced plays, the hilarious goings-on behind the scenes of a controversial election chaotically unfold first at the fundraiser that will decide the party’s nominee and then months later at a debate the night before the election. (Bookshop)
Revolution in These Times: Black Panther Party Veteran Dhoruba Bin-Wahad on Antifascism, Black Liberation, and a Culture of Resistence by Dhoruba Bin-Wahad (Common Notions, Feb 2025): Lessons for the antifascist fight now and to come rooted in well-learned lessons from Black liberation. (Amazon; Bookshop)
She’s a Lamb!: A Novel by Meredith Hambrock (ECW Press, 8 Apr 2025): A darkly comic suspense, She’s a Lamb! is an edgy and incisive novel that marches toward showtime with a growing unease about the dangers of magical thinking and the depths of delusion. (Amazon; Bookshop)
This Book Is Free and Yours to Keep: Notes from the Appalachian Prison Book Project by Connie Banta, Kristin DeVault-Juelfs, Destinee Harper, Katy Ryan, Ellen Skirvin, eds. (West Virginia UP, 1 Dec 2024): A captivating collection of letters and artwork by people in prison that highlights the crucial work done by the Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP), a nonprofit that provides books to incarcerated people in West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Maryland. (Amazon; Bookshop)
The Violin with Human Strings and Other Tales of Musical Madness by Antonio Ghislanzoni, translated by Brendan and Anna Connell (Snuggly Books, 2 Dec 2024): This quartet of tales, the protagonists of which are a violinist, a pianist, a trumpet player, and a singer, are by turns horrific, humorous, bizarre, and touching, and bring to the modern reader some of the small masterpieces of one of Italy’s great writers, who is certainly deserving of renewed recognition. (Amazon; Asterism; Bookshop)
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Plus, Eulalia Books, which publishes contemporary poetry from Latin America, has three titles coming out on 4 December, available now for pre-order: Guerrilla Blooms by indigenous writer Daniela Catrileo, winner of the 2019 Santiago Municipal Literature Prize, written in both Spanish and Mapudungun and now available in English by translator Edith Adams, The Mistaken Place of Things by Gabriela Aguirre, translated by Laura Cesarco Eglin, and Waking in the Sahara by Zaira Pacheco, translated by Lauren Shapiro; and, Middle Creek Publishing has three books of poetry coming out in March 2025 and available now for pre-order: Accidental Hope by Colorado writer Diana Kurniawan, Halchita Red by Navajo writer Paige Buffington, and Walking the Burn by NFSPS award-winning poet Rachel Kellum.
These posts usually result in me requesting my library purchase at least one of the listed books. They are making my reading life better; thank you so much for taking so much time to make them!
posted by mixedmetaphors at 12:04 PM on November 19 [1 favorite]
posted by mixedmetaphors at 12:04 PM on November 19 [1 favorite]
This post is amazing, thank you so much!
posted by maryellenreads at 8:35 AM on November 20 [1 favorite]
posted by maryellenreads at 8:35 AM on November 20 [1 favorite]
Mod note: [Thank you so much for this amazing post, joannemerriam! Again! We've added it to the sidebar and the Best Of blog! Happy reading, everyone!]
posted by taz (staff) at 2:01 AM on November 24 [1 favorite]
posted by taz (staff) at 2:01 AM on November 24 [1 favorite]
Thanks, taz and everybody!
I'm putting together a small press starter pack for those of you on Bluesky: https://go.bsky.app/S4HKBuC
posted by joannemerriam at 10:35 AM on November 24
I'm putting together a small press starter pack for those of you on Bluesky: https://go.bsky.app/S4HKBuC
posted by joannemerriam at 10:35 AM on November 24
When I saw The Autobiography of Cassandra as a 1992 reprint, I did a double-take: wait, there were two autobiographical Cassandra novels in the 80s–90s? To my surprise and delight, the page for Molinaro's book acknowledges, "This novel was originally published in hardcover in 1979, four years prior to the better known and possibly derivative one on the same theme by Christa Wolf." Christa Wolf's novel Cassandra is excellent and highly recommended—I encountered it in a class where we also read Joan Didion, Linda Le, Marguerite Duras, Carole Maso, Ingeborg Bachmann, and Lydia Davis. Now I'm very curious about the relation of influence and will have to check it out.
posted by vitia at 12:04 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]
posted by vitia at 12:04 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]
For those who are fans of the Christa Wolf novel, I offer the work of another brilliant small press author, Catherine Gammon. The Martyrs, The Lovers is a roman a clef about the life and death of real-life German Green Party founder Petra Kelly. Her short stories have a unique voice, lyrical and slightly off-kilter like a more serious Kelly Link or a more verbose and positioned Lydia Davis.
A couple of her short stories: "Trespass;" "In Absence."
posted by vitia at 12:29 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]
A couple of her short stories: "Trespass;" "In Absence."
posted by vitia at 12:29 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]
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I am not familiar with a single one of these people (okay I've heard of Derek Jarman but couldn't tell you if I've actually seen any of his works), and I am immensely looking forward to broadening my horizons.
Thank you for this post, joannemerriam, and for the thought and care and work and creativity and love you put into it. Thank you. Thank you.
posted by kristi at 1:02 PM on November 18 [4 favorites]