 You are invited to a literary reading with Emily Paige Wilson and Laura Kiesel. Emily Paige Wilson is the author of Jalubí (Unsolicited Press, 2022) and two chapbooks: Hypochondria, Least Powerful of the Greek Gods (Glass Poetry Press, 2020) and I'll Build Us a Home (Finishing Line Press, 2018). Her work has been nominated for Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and the Pushcart Prize. Laura Kiesel is a longtime poet, essayist and journalist. Her articles and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, the Washington Post, Vice, Vox, Ozy, Narratively, Salon, The Manifest-Station and many others. Her poems have been featured in upstreet, Medulla Review. Fox Chase Review, Blue Lake Review, Stone Highway Review, Noctua Review, Naugatuck River Review, Wilderness House Literary Review. Originally from Brooklyn, New York she now lives in the Boston area where she teaches creative nonfiction, literary journalism and poetry at Grub Street and Arlington Center for the Arts. She is the servant of two adorable but demanding cats and has a habit of staying up way too late at night, usually reading. The reading will feature readings by both authors followed by an open Q+A window. You can join the reading by going to our events calendar and joining via Zoom.  PORTLAND, OR; May 17, 2022— Hunting Geese by Sarah Rau Peterson is a short story collection that features characters as multi-layered as Montana herself. The unnamed protagonist in Hunting Geese grapples with life choices and his just out-of-reach family while positioned on the banks of the frigid Yellowstone River awaiting the descent of geese. She Would Have and The Needing Place addresses the dynamics of a complicated father-daughter relationship told from each perspective while skirting the issues of generational gaps and aging. Wednesday’s Child’s narrator wonders what she, as a mother, did to push her daughter away, and Chickens is about, well, it’s about chickens.
From the Book HE’S PARKED ON THE RIVERBANK to get away from the wife, holding his thermos mug and staring out at the decoys. The sky has gone pink, and he’s waiting for the geese to drop for their nightly visit. The shotgun’s loaded but the safety’s on and he can keep it on the seat next to him since Dog died. He sips his coffee-with-brandy, but it’s lukewarm despite the thermos and the bitter taste gives him heartburn. The radio won’t stop blaring talking head commentary about the upcoming presidential election—Jesus, it’s still over a year away—and he wishes he could get a sports show, maybe some rock and roll out here instead. His hands ache from the cold, his old hands that have set hundreds, thousands of decoys into frozen riverbanks, lakeshores crusted with ice, waiting, waiting. He thinks of Freezeout Lake, so cold that winter—what, damn near forty years now—he remembers it was too cold to wait for the birds outside even though the first few were already scoping out his decoys. Scattered cars and pickups around the shorelines puffing clouds from the mufflers. He knew, too, that every one of those vehicles were tuned into the same AM station out of Calgary as he was, and nobody stopped listening even when the geese came down, and all at once the horns and flashing headlights, noise that all but drowned out the sound of the startled birds lifting off and out of range, but they all whooped and hollered, all the hunters like young boys, because they believed in miracles, yes they did, when the Ruskies lost that hockey game. The wife, a few years back he had told her about that cold night in ’80, after they made that movie and everyone was talking about it again, and he teared up and then downright cried over how nobody pulled in any geese that night, but they were all brothers who emerged from warm vehicles to chant USA! USA! together into the frigid air. She wasn’t really listening, he could tell, but he got downright pissed off when she told him she didn’t remember it. Didn’t remember it! Didn’t remember the call? Al Michaels? Beating the freaking USSR, the Red Army guys? Her face was blank, and she’d said—she actually said—that she didn’t follow football. He chuckles to himself, now. That had been a hell of a conversation. He warms his hands against the heater vent, rubs them together, arthritic knuckle against arthritic knuckle. About Sarah Rau Peterson Sarah Rau Peterson is a first-generation Montanan. She lives with her husband and two children near Miles City, where she divides her time between the family’s cattle ranch, her middle school history classroom, and her children’s activities. She publishes occasionally in The Montana Quarterly. About Unsolicited Press Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented. As a womxn-owned, all-volunteer small publisher that doesn’t worry about profits as much as championing exceptional literature, we have the privilege of partnering with authors skirting the fringes of the lit world. We’ve worked with emerging and award-winning authors such as Shann Ray, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Brook Bhagat, Kris Amos, and John W. Bateman. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find us on twitter and Instagram, @unsolicitedp. HUNTING GEESE is available on May 17, 2022 as a paperback (66 p.; 978-1-956692-19-8) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. ### Press only, Unsolicited Press 619.354.8005 marketing@unsolicitedpress.com For artist interviews, readings, and podcasts: Sarah Rau Peterson If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I am a huge fan of Miriam Toews. I would love to have dinner with her and, like a leech, I’d pick her brain about her writing process and ask for advice; however, my cooking is not nearly as awesome as her writing, so I’d ask her what she wanted to eat, and then I’d practice making said meal until it was go time, and, realistically, I’d probably mess the meal up and end up ordering out. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I think I have a huge case of imposter syndrome. I wish I could say that I combat that by putting my head down and continuing to write despite my insecurities, but sometimes it gets the better of me. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? I love the character Jenny Fields from John Irving’s The World According to Garp. She is a badass who can do it all. What books are on your nightstand? There are two books on my nightstand right now. The first is This Bright River by Patrick Sommerville. I love his work on Station 11 and other shows, so I grabbed his novel to read. The other book on my nightstand is Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. I haven’t read it, and I probably never will. My sister passed away at the age of 36, and it was her favorite book, so by not ever reading it, I feel like there’s something that I can still learn about her, even 10 years later. I find it strangely comforting. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I love the ellipsis. I think it invites engagement from the reader. It kind of forces them to fill in the blanks… What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? The assignment was to independently read a Shakespeare play and do a report on it. I was a lazy high-school student who avoided work whenever possible, so my choice was Shakespeare’s King John. I picked that one because I figured it was one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays, and there was a pretty good chance that my teacher had not read it. I was right! If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? "You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it." - Octavia E. Butler Does writing energize or exhaust you? It energizes me. I get in the zone, and I lose track of time when I’m writing. What are common traps for aspiring writers? I think aspiring writers don’t realize how much time and energy it takes to write. Writing is a craft with limitless room for improvement. If you want to write, you’d better be prepared to never be satisfied. What is your writing Kryptonite? I have to be careful of what I read while I am writing fiction because it frequently seeps into my writing, and the writing ends up feeling forced and lifeless. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? I usually do not have reader’s block. I do, sometimes, have difficulty figuring which book to read from my list of to-read books. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? I believe that it’s possible, but not the norm. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? Ben Tanzer comes to mind. Through Ben, I have met a lot of other awesome writers from Chicago: Mark Brand, Joseph G. Peterson, Peter Anderson, Giano Cromley, and Jerry Brennan to name a few. For me it’s nice to know that there are like-minded people out there. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? I want each of my books to stand on its own. Honestly, I cringe when I read my past work. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? Buying a computer solely for my writing was the best money I’ve ever spent as a writer. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? This is a surprisingly difficult question for me to answer. There are so many more authors who I liked at first, but I’ve grown to dislike over the years than there are authors who I have grown to like. I think Stephan King might be the best answer to go with here. For me, he is so hit or miss that it took a while for me to find something in his repertoire that I liked. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? I came home from school one day to find that my younger sister had ratted me out for swearing at school. I got in a lot of trouble for that. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? Dave Newman’s Raymond Carver Will Not Raise Our Children is an underappreciated favorite of mine. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? A seagull. They are capable of beauty, but they also spend most of their time fighting for scraps and picking through the trash. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? Not all characters in The Craigslist Incident were based on real people (I need some plausible deniability, here), but for those characters who are loosely based on real people, I will defer to Anne Lamont: “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” What does literary success look like to you? Every time I achieve a literary goal, I set another one. I just keep plugging away. I don’t think I will ever feel successful. What’s the best way to market your books? I believe that after all has been said and done, the best way to market a book is through word of mouth; therefore, I believe it is important for me to get my book out to as many readers as possible. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? I am petrified that I will get something wrong, and that mistake that will take the reader out of that fragile, magic, fiction bubble that I worked so hard to create. What did you edit out of this book? I think a better question for me would be: What have you edited into your novel? For years, my focus was poetry, so I focused on condensing a narrative into as few words as possible, and, unfortunately, that habit followed me into my prose writing. When I worked with the Unsolicited editing team, I found that I was adding scenes to the plot rather than cutting scenes. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I think I would be working somewhere in the field of psychology. I also love teaching, so I would for sure be teaching.  If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Well, I’m not a very good cook. I’d eat breakfast with Craig Lancaster as long as he made it. I’d eat leftovers from Mary Karr’s fridge and whatever Alexandra Fuller wanted me to eat! Basically I’d do whatever those women wanted me to! What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? It’s terrifying to just start. It’s terrifying when I’ve gone weeks with no new ideas, and it’s terrifying when I get ALL the ideas at once because I worry that they’ll go away! I think the best thing I do is scribble ideas in a notebook, whether it becomes pages and pages or it’s just a doodle or some sort of outline. I have come to terms with the idea that sometimes my notes just aren’t meant to see the light of day. I have also worked hard to just take a breath and send my work out there. Rejection hurts, but it’s not the end of the world. There’s a great anecdote from Stephen King from his early years in which he uses a railroad spike to tack all the rejection letters to his wall. It happens to, quite literally, the most prolific of them all. We indie authors aren’t alone! Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Janet Fitch is one of my most favorite authors, and her first novel White Oleander really changed the way I viewed characters. They don’t have to have linear or neat, clean growth. They can have an ugliness, a rawness that almost hurts to read. I felt that about her characters in Paint It Black, but I have an absolute obsession with Marina Makarova in The Revolution of Marina M and Chimes of a Lost Cathedral. I can’t find the right adjectives to do her justice. What books are on your nightstand? My dad listens to “books on tape.” (He does use a streaming service but hasn’t broken into modern lingo yet.) He talks a lot about this Louisiana ex-cop called Dave Robicheaux, and he’s so animated and uses this terrible accent when talking about it. He gets so excited about these books, so I’ve been checking out James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series from the public library. I could lie and say it’s War and Peace on my nightstand, but it’s a stack of good ol’ boy mysteries. A bad guy gets eaten by his own pigs, people! That’s bedtime entertainment! Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I’m an Oxford comma girl. I love a good semicolon; I don’t, however, use it a lot in fiction. But I can’t stop using exclamation points! I just have a ton of excitement! What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I used CliffsNotes (does that date me?!) to get through The Scarlet Letter, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Great Expectations…I read so much that the librarians waived the 3-book maximum, but I couldn’t read anything I was assigned. I didn’t read The Great Gatsby or To Kill a Mockingbird or Catcher in the Rye until I was in college. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? Oh, definitely my lifelong companion Brown Bear. I used to call him Winnie the Pooh, even though he’s not the yellow honey fiend. I dropped him in the street when I was about two, and my mom put an ad in the paper: “Lost. Little brown bear.” My earliest memory is of going to a woman’s house to retrieve him. He’s been everywhere with me. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? “If you don’t write it, who will? Just do the damn thing!” Seriously, though. Just write it. If it’s in you, get it out. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Oh, it’s energizing. Sometimes manic. I never feel like I’m “done,” but I’m not exhausted by it. What are common traps for aspiring writers? I think we all have a level of hubris, but it’s important to recognize that. Not everyone’s first book is picked up by, say, Random House. And that’s more than okay. Better than okay! Also, guard your work. Blogs and other easy-to-publish sources don’t protect your work the way it deserves to be protected. Don’t give up. Yes, you may have to work a “real” job. You may not write for three years. You may choose to attend nine thousand writer’s retreats and never come out with a single idea. All of it is okay. Do you write? You’re a writer. Is your grandma your only reader? She’s proud of you. What is your writing Kryptonite? Does this question mean I’m Super Man? I’m so easily distracted by whatever I find on the internet. I’ll take a break, fall into the proverbial rabbit hole, and emerge 2 hours later. Were those cat videos worth it? Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Ooh, good one. Nope. I will read books multiple times until they become part of my soul. I am never not reading something. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Sure. Tell that story!! I guarantee that someone else has a similar experience as that author. Writing should come from every single experience. There’s no “one size fits all” for emotion. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? I’m internet friends with several Montana writers, and just seeing them working (and succeeding, and failing sometimes, and living, and feeling) gives me an understanding that we’re all in this together. Not one of us is this hermit who lives on an island of self-importance, rolling around in stacks of cash. It’s a small community of folks who support each other through (often inappropriate) humor and the much-needed encouragement to just keep writing. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? I write short stories, and sometimes one story is connected to another but told through different narrators. The one connection I think I will always have is Montana, but I’m in the stand-alone camp. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? It encouraged me! The thought that other people will see my words in print gives me the motivation to do more. It’s such a dang process though, but I haven’t changed it. I do what works for me, which is long-hand notes and notebook scribbles. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? Any money spent at a book store, a book sale, library overdue fines…reading makes a writer, and it’s the one thing that consistently encourages me. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? I always had a hard time with the ones I was “supposed” to read. I eventually came around to Faulkner. I’ve never been into reading just to say I’ve read a certain book or author. I still don’t like Dickens. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? When I was young, my best friend and I said this: “sticks and stones can break my bones but words can really hurt!” I remember being made fun of at the time and realizing that the things that come out of people’s mouths can cut deeply. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? Plain Bad Heroines by emily danforth. She had huge success with her first novel The Miseducation of Cameron Post, but her second is just this intense noir/mystery/queer/magical/mystical piece of genius that involves a real Montana woman (Mary MacLane) who was so controversial and outspoken and outrageous in a time when women were decidedly not. The moon, because the writing process certainly follows an ebb and flow. Sometimes it’s full and rich and bright and super, and other times it’s dark and absent (but still spinning around there somewhere). What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters?! I owe them the assurance that I am not intentionally basing characters on them, even though they think otherwise. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? A million? What does literary success look like to you? Honestly, I’ve written for so long. I’ve never tried to make it a “career.” Success, for me, is handing a real, bound, published book to my parents and saying “I did it.” Having an actual book. Maybe two. But something that other people read, something that stands alone. That’s success. It’s not the finish line. What’s the best way to market your books? Who likes to toot their own horn? I like the simple “post online” method and hope it spreads like wildfire! Not the most effective. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? Bodies. I don’t know how a man settles into his body. I can only guess and observe and put a little of what I know about those around me into male characters. It’s really hard to avoid stereotypes. What did you edit out of this book? A lot of swear words! If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I am currently a librarian and 8th grade teacher. I love working at our middle school. We own a cattle ranch. It’s an amazing privilege to work outside. I’d love to create art full time. Honestly? I’d be pretty good at being a professional nap-taker.  PORTLAND, OR; May 10, 2022--Against a backdrop of newsfeeds and hints of eco-doom, #TheNewCrusades centers on a series of letters to an uncertain deity hovering above and within a particular American madness. These poems are fractured little diaries seeking a wholeness; they track the ways we move back and forth between larger social-political selves and inner-personal selves.
The news here is professed through protests, graffiti, broken mirrors, ambient radio, synchronized fires, and all-night newsfeeds--all of it projecting a cryptic and indefinable set of rules that churn about as permutations of some lost algorithm. They address a tamed violence held barely in check, examining masculinity and fatherhood and the undercurrents of suburban domesticity. In the end, they are a barrage of cries at breaking the boundary between you and I, questions rising into prayers that ask, are we closed or open systems? Can we really know each other at all? Praise for Bill Neumire "As Bill Neumire shows, to tell the truths about America requires a lyricism that is as wily as it is direct, as elegiac as it is exuberant. #TheNewCrusades is a reckoning about the coal-mouthed glow of the American heart and the darkness & us that characterizes the messy promise of our body politic. Well past Whitman’s earnest appraisal of who we were, Neumire instead sees the alarming contradictions of who we really are, made fruitful & rueful by our metastatic news and hungers. Brash and also tender, Neumire’s poems are the honest lullabies we need now to keep from sleep, to open our eyes, to wake up." --Rick Barot "#TheNewCrusades begins “Here I take the box of world…” and the book does just that. It’s a box, and a book, that foretells violence, questions masculinity, mourns the falling away of cities and nations and nature and people. Bill Neumire has an ear for the memorable phrase, an eye for the image that hurts. “Dear hashtagged american morning, / if you promise / everything’s fine I can stand in a pall of crabapple leaves / like an elephant feeling seismic signals,” he writes, not believing it for a second. But these poems believe: in the leaves and the elephant and the hashtagged morning, then undergo them all like a trial. The box of world is recognizably ours: we have all undergone it, but never so eloquently nor with such patient clarity as this book does." --Kathy Ossip About Bill Neumire Author of two chapbooks--Resonance of Kin (PuddingHouse 2013) and Between Worlds (Foothills 2013)—Bill Neumire’s first full-length book, Estrus, was a semi-finalist for the 42 Miles Press Award. He regularly reviews books of contemporary poetry for Vallum, and for Verdad where he works as poetry editor. About Unsolicited Press Unsolicited Press was founded in 2012 and is based in Portland, OR. The press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Learn more at www.unsolicitedpress.com. The publisher can be followed on Instagram and Twitter: @unsolicitedp #TheNewCrusades is available on May 10, 2022 as a paperback (132 p.; 978-1-956692-14-3) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. ### Press only, Unsolicited Press 619.354.8005 marketing@unsolicitedpress.com  In Peripheral Visions and Other Stories, the characters choose to play the best game they can with the cards they’ve received. For some, it’s making the most of the circumstances in which they find themselves, even if it’s not the life they planned. For others, it’s following an unconventional path-not the easiest course or the one that others would take, but the one that’s right for them. But they never lose hope that life will get better if they can just hold on. Peripheral Visions and Other Stories was a finalist in the 2021 Eric Hoffer Book Awards, a finalist and Bronze Award winner in the 2020 Foreword INDIES competition, a finalist in the 2020 N.N. Light Book Awards (short story), and won second place in the Florida Writers Association 2018 Royal Palm Literary Awards (RPLA) competition, with three of the stories having also earned contest placements. Nancy Christie is the author of two award-winning short story collections: Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories and Peripheral Visions and Other Stories—both published by Unsolicited Press. Christie’s third short story collection, Mistletoe Magic and Other Holiday Tales, will be published in 2023 by Unsolicited Press. Her short stories have appeared in numerous literary publications including The Saturday Evening Post, Goat’s Milk, Commuter Lit, Ariel Chart, Page & Spine, One Person’s Trash, Two Cities Review, Talking River, Edify Fiction, Toasted Cheese, Wanderings, The Chaffin Journal and Down in the Dirt, among others, with several of her stories earning contest placements. Christie has also authored three non-fiction books: the inspirational/motivational book, The Gifts of Change (Atria/Beyond Words) and two award-winning books for writers: Rut-Busting Book for Writers and Rut-Busting Book for Authors (both by Mill City Press). The founder of the annual “Celebrate Short Fiction” Day, Christie is the host of the Living the Writing Life podcast. A member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA) and Florida Writers Association (FWA), Christie also teaches writing workshops at conferences, libraries and schools nationwide. May 9th
R&R Book Tours (Kick-Off) http://rrbooktours.com Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com Timeless Romance Blog (Spotlight) https://aubreywynne.com/ Riss Reviews (Spotlight) https://rissreviewsx.wixsite.com/website May 10th Not a Bunny Blog (Review) https://notanybunny.wordpress.com/blog @aliciareviewsbook (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/Aliciareviewsbooks/ Nesie’s Place (Spotlight) https://nesiesplace.wordpress.com May 11th @booklymatters (Review) https://www.instagram.com/booklymatters/ @amber.bunch_author (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/amber.bunch_author/ Breakeven Books (Spotlight) https://breakevenbooks.com May 12th Liliyana Shadowlyn (Review) https://lshadowlynauthor.com/ @gryffindorbookishnerd (Review) https://www.instagram.com/gryffindorbookishnerd/ B is for Book Review (Spotlight) https://bforbookreview.wordpress.com May 13th Ravenz Reviews (Review) http://ravenzreviews.blogspot.com/ @itsabookthing2021 (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/itsabookthing2021/ Bunny’s Reviews (Spotlight) https://bookwormbunnyreviews.blogspot.com/ If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? Spicy enchiladas for Daphne Du Maurier – the greatest suspense writer of all time. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I’m scared that I won’t have the time in my life to write all of the projects that I want to, and/or that I will start a piece and then never finish it. The best way to combat that, I think, is to work according to your own schedule, but make sure you put in work every day, even if that work is only conceptualizing the project(s). Also, respect the editing process: once the first draft is finished, that’s when the bulk of the work begins and the piece really starts to take shape. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? I mentioned Daphne du Maurier above, but in terms of literary characters I’m obsessed with, I’ll say Villanelle from Jeannette Winterson’s The Passion, one of my favorite novels. What books are on your nightstand? Currently, Class, Politics, and Ideology in the Iranian Revolution by Mansoor Moaddel (partially as research for an upcoming book) and Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire. (I always try to maintain an eclectic reading list.) Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The ellipsis. So much mystery and angst is contained within those three dots. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I couldn’t get through The Scarlet Letter the first time around. I’ve since tried to reread it with slightly more success. (As far as Hawthorne goes, “Young Goodman Brown” is my favorite.) What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My record player, which accompanies nearly all my writing sessions. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? “Conquering self-doubt is the first step to being the writer you want to be.” Does writing energize or exhaust you? Writing energizes me but editing exhausts me. What are common traps for aspiring writers? I think writing what you expect other people want to read (or what you think publishers or marketers want to sell) is the worst trap. That inevitably leads to uninspired or generic writing. Any artist can only create the work that speaks to them – that they themselves would want to read or watch or listen to. What is your writing Kryptonite? Stress. Exhaustion from my day job or social obligations makes me too distracted to focus on the work the way I should. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Not really. I have a plan in my head for what book is next on the docket. (Although I do worry that I won’t have enough time to read all the great books out there. It’s a good problem to have, in my opinion.) Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? No. Thinking critically about the world is also a must, but it’s not enough to only be conceptual - there must be passion to your ideas. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? I’m friends with several fiction writers based (or formerly based) in the Twin Cities, either published or unpublished; and with numerous international film critics and theorists. There’s not enough time to list all the ways they help me become a better writer! It is indispensable for artists to have a community and a discourse to share ideas, support each other, constructively criticize them, commiserate through the rough periods, and get excited about the work they admire. In particular, I used to be part of a group of horror and sci-fi writers in Minneapolis that would share their ideas and early drafts of work on Google Docs. This was important because we would also frequently talk about how speculative genres are underrecognized for their artistic and subversive potential. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? Both. That might be a cop-out answer, but it’s true. Every work should stand on its own, but an artist should have a collective body of work with at least thematic connections between them. I do also admire sequels, prequels, spinoffs, and other works that expand the universe of a work of art, not simply to capitalize on a familiar name. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? It increased my confidence. From starting to write the book to publication was about nine years. If you put in the work and have faith throughout the process, then the end goal really is achievable. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? This may sound like paid promotion (it’s not!) but about six years ago I spent almost $1,000 to work with Mark Malatesta, a professional literary coach (and former agent). He helped me write my query letter and synopsis and compile a list of agents to reach out to, along with providing insight into what I could expect from the querying process. He landed me my first agent, and even though a publishing deal didn’t come directly from that, it was indispensable experience. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? J.G. Ballard is the first author that comes to mind. I don’t love his early book The Drowned World (which was the first thing I read by him), but have really admired almost everything else. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? Weirdly enough, I remember the O.J. Simpson trial being televised when I was about ten years old, and it’s one of the first major public discourses I can remember. Even at the time, I noticed that the way people talked about it (especially as it related to their racial identity) was especially charged. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins is one of the best British novels of the 19th century. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? The bur oak tree. It’s a majestic tree native to the American Midwest that grows slowly but lives a very long time – an apt metaphor for the writing process. It also is not outwardly beautiful (it doesn’t have dazzling fall colors) but the leaves often have a faint golden hue in the autumn, which is a kind of understated glamor I admire. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? An attempt to make those characters as complex, genuine, and rooted in sympathetic motivations as possible. That should describe every character, but especially those based on real people. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? About five (and even more unfinished screenplays). I used to feel very anxious about these unfinished or unpublished works, but now I think it’s constant motivation – a reminder of how many other stories I want to tell. What does literary success look like to you? To have my work read by strangers (no matter the number, but the more the better) who connect with it in some way is the ultimate goal. To write a novel (and edit it numerous times until it’s “final”) is incredibly gratifying, but the book doesn’t really come alive until it’s read by people who simply want to read it because they love literature. The true epitome of success would be to make enough money from writing and editing that it could be my full-time job and I could focus on my art as much as I think it deserves, without relying on a day job. But no matter how financially lucrative it is, I’ll continue writing regardless. What’s the best way to market your books? I’ve always thought that word of mouth is the best strategy no matter the art form. So getting the book out there to critics, readers, and writers who also respect genres like horror and believe that great work can be made within that format is my ideal approach. If the work is good enough, word of mouth will be spread (through social media, conversation, interviews, etc.) and the book will gain a following, even if it takes some time. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? I think writing any character is extremely challenging, no matter their sex, racial identity, sexual orientation, etc., but it’s the most exhilarating challenge in writing fiction. You have to fully inhabit each character, whether their identity is relatively similar or totally different from your own, and try to understand them inside and out; develop a backstory for them, envision their hopes and fears, even if you don’t necessarily write about that in the novel. So the most difficult thing is to try to know them and empathize with them completely but convey that succinctly. That’s a challenge even with people we know in real life: human beings are always mysteries, and that’s what makes them so compelling. (I do think that writers need to basically be empaths, though. I can’t imagine writing a compelling character if you’re not radically empathetic to them.) What did you edit out of this book?” SO MUCH. Hollow went through at least six rounds of edits, including an early round with a New York editor named John Paine who really helped improve the novel and allowed me to recognize its early weaknesses. I cut out a scene in which the protagonist investigates the central mystery by visiting a hospital in Grange, the town in which the novel is set. I also cut out some horrific scenes involving the witch in the novel, since they were somewhat repetitive. More beneficial, though, were the scenes I added, including more backstory about the Ben and Amy characters, and the scene in which Ben goes to visit his estranged wife and then leaves in shame at the last moment, which is now one of my favorite scenes in the novel. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I currently do have a day job in the marketing department of an educational theater company. I’ve also worked at restaurants, movie theaters, art museums, coffeeshops, you name it. Writing is my passion and the thing I want to dedicate my life to, so I’ll keep working day jobs as long as I have to to support that passion. But ideally that work would involve the creative arts somehow; film is my other great passion, so I’ve also really enjoyed working at theaters and film festivals.
 On May 4th, we are hosting a reading with two poets that write poetry in two very different ways. The reading will be held live on Zoom at 5:30PM Pacific Time. You can join on our events page (just click the event and then the link). Grace Marie Grafton Grace Marie Grafton is the author of six books of poetry. Jester (2013) was published by Hip Pocket Press. Author Mary Mackey writes that this collection of poems “links us to a communal imagination which transcends the conventional limits of both poetry and fine arts.” Whimsy, Reticence and Laud (2012) was published by Poetic Matrix Press. Poet/novelist Tobey Hiller writes of this book, “In these lush sonnets.....the wild and the cultivated often collide.” Other Clues (2010), composed of experimental prose poems, was published by Latitude Press. Of this collection, poet Melissa Kwasny writes, “There is wisdom amidst the chaos. Eros. Nature. There are tutelary spirits of the plants and the nouns.” Ms. Grafton's chapbook, Zero, (1999) won the Poetic Matrix Press contest. Her poetry has won honors from “Bellingham Review”, San Francisco PEN Women's Soul Making contests, “Sycamore Review” and “Anderbo.” Her poems have recently appeared in “Fifth Wednesday”, “Cortland Review”, “Ambush Review”, “Askew'”, “The Offending Adam”, “Sin Fronteras”, and “basalt”, among others.. For over three decades, Ms. Grafton taught children to write poetry through the CA Poets in the Schools program, winning twelve Artist In Residence grants from the CA Arts Council for her teaching. She was awarded Teacher of the Year by the River Of Words Youth Poetry Contest, sponsored by Robert Hass, US Poet Laureate. Bill Neumire
Author of two chapbooks--Resonance of Kin (PuddingHouse 2013) and Between Worlds (Foothills 2013)—Bill Neumire’s first full-length book, Estrus, was a semi-finalist for the 42 Miles Press Award. He regularly reviews books of contemporary poetry for Vallum, and for Verdad where he works as poetry editor.  Celebrating the launch of a book is a momentous occasion. This summer we invite you to experience Francis Daulerio's JOY by attending a book tour event. Francis will be touring the East Coast as well as making several virtual appearances. The lineup goes from Philly to Brooklyn. The team at Unsolicited Press and Francis would be honored to have you in the audience. You can buy tickets HERE. This is one book tour that you will not want to miss. All virtual events are free and accessible on our Events page.  JOY is Francis Daulerio’s second full length collection of poetry and fifth release in the last seven years. Beginning with one pregnancy and ending with another, JOY is a meditation on the ways in which we struggle to stay alive, live among each others’ wreckage, and hold each other up. Through what Bon Iver’s Sean Carey describes as “Daulerio’s relentless hope and love,” JOY explores the challenges of seeking happiness while living with depression and anxiety, frequently settling in the mundanity of normal life, hunting for beauty in the plain and celebrating each bit of it. While the title may suggest a lighthearted read, the book is more about the seeking than the finding, centering around the birth of Daulerio’s first child while coping with the loss of friend and collaborator, Scott Hutchison. Though painful at times, it is a life-affirming book that encourages readers to push through the hardships we all face to find their own sense of meaning.
JOY is packed tight with fifty-four poems, a few which have been previously release through magazines, but most of which are brand new. It also has a foreword by author Maggie Smith (Good Bones, Keep Moving), and stunning cover art by UK artist Helen Ahpornsiri. JOY is due out June 21, 2022. Preorder a copy today and have it in time for the tour. Francis will have a limited amount on hand at each stop.  With April coming to a close, we want to end National Poetry Month with a bang by hosting a reading with the darling Rowe Carenen, the poet who wrote FIRST DRAFTS FROM THE BREWERY. You can join the virtual event by heading over to our events page (click on the event and the info for the Zoom meeting is in there). The reading is at 5:30PM Pacific Time.  First Drafts from the Brewery explores the ends, and beginnings, of relationships, the value of true-blue friends, and the delights of the seasons. Less a how-to guide to divorce, and more a long and lingering porch-chat complete with good beer or a strong whiskey, this collection embraces simplicity while staring down pain without flinching. But not to worry, there’s plenty of cats, puppies, and cozy blankets.  Rowe Carenen is a graduate of Salem College and the University of Southern Mississippi. When asked, she'd say that poetry has been her passion ever since she realized that words could convey more than just the facts. Her poems have appeared in various literary journals and magazines, including The Revenant Culture, GERM, Terrible Orange Review, the Running with Water anthology, and her first collection, In the Meantime, was published by Neverland Publishing in 2014. She lives in Greenville, South Carolina, with her cat Minerva Jane and dog Neville Jameson.
 PORTLAND, OR; April 26, 2022 -- Less Than What You Once Were begins in a pivotal moment for the speaker—during the 2008 “Battle of N’Djamena” in Chad’s capital. This destabilizing experience—in which the speaker’s home is broken into—results in the family embarking on a months-long departure from the place, and the narrative begins to cycle through childhood memories, from the first night when Brown lands at N’Djamena’s airport as an eight-year-old boy to the failed attempt at bird hunting with a slingshot. These centering memories soon give way to stories of displacement as a young adult and, much later, a return to the country of his youth. This fragmented memoir, told in a similar, episodic style to Claudia Rankine’s Citizen, is both a coming-of-age story and also a story of exile, ending in a state of dislocated adulthood, the speaker longing for a return to a childhood home that can’t be accessed.
About Aaron Brown Born in Texas and raised in Chad, Aaron Brown is the author of the poetry collection, Acacia Road, winner of the 2016 Gerald Cable Book Award (Silverfish Review Press). He has been published in World Literature Today, Tupelo Quarterly, Waxwing, Cimarron Review, and Transition, among others, and he is a contributing editor for Windhover. Brown now lives in Texas, where he is an assistant professor of English and directs the writing center at LeTourneau University. He holds an MFA from the University of Maryland. About Unsolicited Press Unsolicited Press was founded in 2012 and is based in Portland, OR. The press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Learn more at www.unsolicitedpress.com. The publisher can be followed on Instagram and Twitter: @unsolicitedp Less Than What You Once Were is available on April 26, 2022 as a paperback (130 p.; 978-1-956692-11-2) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities.  Born in Texas and raised in Chad, Aaron Brown is the author of the poetry collection, Acacia Road, winner of the 2016 Gerald Cable Book Award (Silverfish Review Press). He has been published in World Literature Today, Tupelo Quarterly, Waxwing, Cimarron Review, and Transition, among others, and he is a contributing editor for Windhover. Brown now lives in Texas, where he is an assistant professor of English and directs the writing center at LeTourneau University. He holds an MFA from the University of Maryland.  John W. Bateman lives in the Deep South, chasing words and finding stories. Influences include comedian and writer Bob Smith, photographer Duane Michals, his fairy godparents, and coffee. His work has appeared in OneNewEngland, The Huffington Post, Glitterwolf Magazine, Nately's, the SFWP Quarterly, and lots of notebooks stacked in a bookcase somewhere. He has won a few awards for screenwriting and received a 2018 Emerging Filmmaker grant from the Mississippi Film Alliance. Who Killed Buster Sparkle? is his first novel.
 PORTLAND, OR; March 1, 2022--First Drafts from the Brewery explores the ends, and beginnings, of relationships, the value of true-blue friends, and the delights of the seasons. Less a how-to guide to divorce, and more a long and lingering porch-chat complete with good beer or a strong whiskey, this collection embraces simplicity while staring down pain without flinching. But not to worry, there’s plenty of cats, puppies, and cozy blankets.
Praise for Rowe Carenen First Drafts from the Brewery is a book about repair, about what we do when the waters haven’t quite claimed us yet—that furtive in-the-meantime. “Grief,” our speaker says, “lives in my body.” But also in that body lies the psychic excavation of so many riches: confetti and PetSmart, Lemon Pledge and Elvis, resin. And in our grieving bodies we are kept such great company: land surveyors, Paul Simon, bad dates, grandparents, even famous writers. There lives inside these thoughtful and honest, observant poems invoking familiarity. I used to love a song that asked: “Where do you go when you’re lonely?” These poems answer that. You go everywhere, and with all your people, and with all your things. And you clink the festive glasses of curiosity and gratitude while you’re at it. --Mamie Morgan, author of EVERYONE I’VE DANCED WITH IS DEAD (Jackleg Press) About Rowe Carenen Rowe Carenen is a graduate of Salem College and the University of Southern Mississippi. When asked, she'd say that poetry has been her passion ever since she realized that words could convey more than just the facts. Her poems have appeared in various literary journals and magazines, including The Revenant Culture, GERM, Terrible Orange Review, the Running with Water anthology, and her first collection, In the Meantime, was published by Neverland Publishing in 2014. She lives in Greenville, South Carolina, with her cat Minerva Jane and dog Neville Jameson. About Unsolicited Press Unsolicited Press was founded in 2012 and is based in Portland, OR. The press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Learn more at www.unsolicitedpress.com. The publisher can be followed on Instagram and Twitter: @unsolicitedp First Drafts from the Brewery is available on April 19, 2022 as a paperback (88p.; 978-1-956692-12-9) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. Who are you as a poet? What do you represent? BB: I hope I never have an answer for this. I can tell you what other people would say about my voice. There are patterns, images that come again and again—flying, disappearing, dancing, jumping. Peacocks and racoons and fire escapes. Stellar nurseries. Blankets and threads. Wildness, mostly, strangeness, dream-like stuff—the mirror you find in the woods. The black widow you find crying on the windowsill. Buddhas and shadow goddesses. But I also have poems about discrimination and politics and Taco Bell. I don’t want a fixed idea of who I am as a poet or any other way, because once you have that idea you start living or writing within those boundaries, and one of my favorite things about writing is how my own poems surprise me and take me to new places. My best work is about moments when we become more than we are. There is a place for poetry on every topic and emotion, but my favorites are triumphant, a reminder to myself that I can fly, I will fly regardless of my wounds or fears or mistakes or other obstacles. That we are vastness, that separation is an illusion. That the destiny of consciousness is enlightenment. And when I feel the truth of it in my gut, that means it’s true for everyone, and I think everyone needs to be reminded sometimes that they are perfect, they are beauty, they are power and courage and they can fly too, because it’s easy to forget that in this world. What is your proudest poetic accomplishment? BB: My first published poetry collection, Only Flying, came out in November. In one sense, it’s something I’d been trying to do for two years, revising it and sending it out again and again to small presses. Unsolicited Press was the fifteenth place I had sent it, and I didn’t have much hope for publishing it anymore—I just kept doing it anyway. But in another sense, it’s something I had been trying to do for forty years, since I wrote my first poetry collection in first grade. My daughter was five months old when I signed the book contract, and I was teaching almost full time at PPCC. So for the entire process of editing, cover design, marketing, and all the other stuff that goes into making a book, I was working from a corner of the bedroom from 2-5 in the morning. My office is a divider in the room with a lamp with a blue light bulb in it, and I had to be careful not to type too loud. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my husband and the rest of my family. I still don’t know how I did it, really, but that’s what my life was like when it happened. It had been my dream since I was a little girl, so not doing it just wasn’t an option. Talk to us about your process writing and, if applicable, performing. BB: There are two ways for me, the mystical way and the conscious way. Just before the pandemic, I had my students compare the Nobel Prize for Literature speeches of Toni Morrison and Bob Dylan. Toni Morrison is incredibly conscious—she knows exactly what she’s doing and why she’s doing it. And next to her, Bob Dylan looks like an idiot—when you think of good stuff, you put it in a song, he says, because it looks good. Water flowing down a ladder—it looks good. You don’t know why, you just write it down. He’s not really an idiot, though. His process is just different—mystical. Some poems are gifts. Words and images just come sometimes, come through you, and then your job is to get out of the way so they can be born the way they want to. This is the poem that comes at three in the morning, half dream and half vision, words or just an image, water flowing down a ladder. Even if I don’t know what it’s supposed to mean, I scribble it on a sticky note because it’s my job to write it down. These are some of the most surreal pieces, the most mystical. Poetry is the furthest words can bend. Poetry uses words to go beyond words. That’s the magic of it—poetry hotwires the brain, bypassing the logic circuits and electrifying the heart directly. One misunderstanding about poetry is that it has to be understood with the head. You can feel it, experience it without that. Sometimes the head is the problem. You don’t have to know what it means; it’s moving through you into the world. I work both ways: other times ideas come from the mind or imagination or the news. On a conscious level, poetry is an attempt to communicate feeling, insight, vision. My most conscious poetry is an attempt to recreate a flash of insight—a moment of vastness, or beauty, courage, rebellion, love, gratitude. Truth. Oneness between people or with the world or with the self. The trick is to make it a journey for the reader’s own imagination, so they have their own flash. Before performing my work, I practice at home. I print it out in a big font and number the pages and highlight every other line. And if I get nervous, I picture somebody like Sarah Silverman making fun of me, like, “Oh, poor widdle baby! Are you scared to wead at the open mic? What do you think this is, The Tonight Show? Just do it, dummy.” How would you describe the poetry community in Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak Region? BB: Most of my involvement in the local poetry community has been through Pikes Peak Community College, where I teach poetry and creative writing. When I finished my MFA, I immediately missed the deadlines, audience, and feedback on my work. Someone gave me the idea of starting a faculty writers’ group, and I did that—it’s called the Nearby Universe. But I made it for all employees, not just faculty, and I’m so glad I did. We have members from the testing center, admins, financial aid office, all over. Math and psychology teachers. It’s been all the things a community is—friendship, motivation, inspiration. A place to get honest feedback on our work. For almost five years now, we’ve been meeting once a month, taking turns workshopping and talking shop about publication, agents, imagery, style—really all things writing. Every winter, we have a write-in, too. We get together and just write next to each other for four hours, like parallel play for grownups. We used to do it downtown at a coffee shop, but the last few years we’ve been doing it on Zoom. Every class I teach is a poetry community, too. My students are amazing—they get me excited about writing again and again, challenge my ideas, and provide me with excellent reading. My students have written the best creative nonfiction braids I’ve ever read. How has poetry been a vehicle for activism, change, or advocacy in your life and community? BB: I have a few explicitly anti-racist and anti-sexist and anti-homophobic poems, and a lot of poems and stories about daring to be yourself and love yourself no matter what. So I hope their publication in literary magazines and in my collection has been a drop in the bucket somewhere. Within academia, change has been slow. Nationwide, college curriculums are starting to be more diverse, but the canon’s walls are thick. It has to start sooner than that. By the time they get to college, half my writers already think poetry’s not for them, not about them. Every semester I ask my students what poetry means, who they think of, and nobody says Lauren Hill or Kendrick Lamar. The answers are always the same: Sonnets. Rules. Shakespeare and Robert Frost and Edgar Allen Poe. What do they all have in common? They’re all dead, they say. All men. And all white. I use my classroom as a vehicle for change. In my poetry class, we study rap specifically, and 75% of the authors we read are people of color in all my classes. And when anybody questions that, I tell them I’m making up for lost time. What’s missing in our poetry community? BB: More emphasis on the arts and the imagination in education. More events and poetry play for kids and teenagers. I have 18-year-olds telling me they’re just not creative people—where did they learn that? The ideas that poetry is for everybody and that poetry is a way to freedom, a way to be yourself, not a dusty room full of rules, has to come sooner. What advances in poetry have you witnessed during your time in the poetry community? BB: The first poetry community I was a part of was my own group of friends in high school and college. Art was part of our connection—we would sing together. We would draw and paint and make sculptures and show each other. We wrote poetry—sometimes about each other—and we read our work to each other. We gave each other feedback, but mostly we uplifted each other and encouraged each other to keep writing and creating. So, in that sense, I’ve been in one poetry community or another for about 30 years. In that time, the biggest advance in the form itself has been the rise of prose poetry into the mainstream, the breaking of the only thing that was really holding poetry together, the only rule left: the line. This contributed to a psychological shift, I think, making poetry a little less pretentious and intimidating, and opening it up to new angles and voices. Now, boundaries between forms and genres are the thinnest they’ve ever been—there are graphic novels of poetry and computer games that should be called novels. There are novels written in hypertext, novels made of bites of prose poetry, and a thousand other hybrids and experiments happening. It’s an incredible time to be reading and writing poetry. What would you say to folks interested or just starting to engage with our poetry scene? BB: If you love it, do it. And don’t count yourself out until you’ve put your ten thousand hours into it. I get students who tell me they like poetry, they’re just not good at writing it, and when I ask how many poems they’ve written, the answer is five or ten or twenty or one. It takes time and effort. Take a class, and read it, and listen to it, and talk to other people who want to write it. Join a writers’ group, online or in person. How do you find and access our poetry community? Who are the players and places of connection? BB: My first poet friend was my grandmother, from as long as I can remember. Now I have a few close writer friends, people I can send drafts and fragments to and talk about ideas with, and I do the same for them. There’s also my writers’ group at PPCC, the Nearby Universe. There are literary magazines I follow and submit to regularly, like A Story in 100 Words and Loud Coffee Press. There’s a lot of community out there that I would love to explore if I had time, like The Pikes Peak Writers Association and Ashley’s group, Poetry 719. I want to go to AWP. But I’m a mom and my babies come first. I have two kids and I have a trampoline. So my plate is very full right now, but it’s delicious. I wouldn’t change a thing. You can support Brook Bhagat by ordering a copy of her book ONLY FLYING.
North Carolina Poet Maureen Sherbondy Releases 11th Poetry Collection: LINES IN OPPOSITION4/12/2022
 PORTLAND, OR; April 12, 2022--Poet Maureen Sherbondy has had enough. Her eleventh collection, Lines in Opposition, explores our need to set limits in times of conflict and confusion. These poems of defiance range from the artistic to the political to the familial, from Basho to Godot, Gretel to Ashbery, the Rockettes to Bubble Yum. At times wry and whimsical, at other times acutely serious, Sherbondy's poems testify to the importance of knowing when and how to draw the line.
About Maureen Sherbondy Maureen Sherbondy’s poems have appeared in Prelude, Calyx, European Judaism, The Oakland Review, and other journals. She has won the Hart Crane Memorial Poetry Contest, the North Carolina Poet Laureate prize, and many other awards. Her most recent poetry books are Dancing with Dali, The Art of Departure, and Eulogy for an Imperfect Man. Sherbondy teaches English at Alamance Community College in Graham, North Carolina. About Unsolicited Press Unsolicited Press was founded in 2012 and is based in Portland, OR. The press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Learn more at www.unsolicitedpress.com. The publisher can be followed on Instagram and Twitter: @unsolicitedp LINES IN OPPOSITION is available on April 12, 2022 as a paperback (106 p.; 978-1-956692-10-5) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities.  Join us on Wednesday to celebrate the poetry of Maureen Sherbondy and Megan Mary Moore. Same time: 5:30PM Pac Time. Same place: Zoom Same people: Managing editor hosting You can log onto the event here. Megan Mary Moore is passionate about horror and poetry. She holds an MFA in poetry from Miami University. Her work has appeared in Rattle, Rogue Agent, Haunted are These Houses by Unnerving Press. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio where she teaches dance and talks to ghosts. Maureen Sherbondy has been published in Calyx, European Judaism, The Oakland Review, Prelude, and other journals. Her poetry books include Eulogy for an Imperfect Man, Beyond Fairy Tales, The Art of Departure, and six chapbooks. LINES IN OPPOSITION by Maureen Sherbondy
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Poet Maureen Sherbondy has had enough. Her eleventh collection, Lines in Opposition, explores our need to set limits in times of conflict and confusion. These poems of defiance range from the artistic to the political to the familial, from Basho to Godot, Gretel to Ashbery, the Rockettes to Bubble Yum. At times wry and whimsical, at other times acutely serious, Sherbondy's poems testify to the importance of knowing when and how to draw the line. Book Details Genre: Poetry ISBN:978-1-956692-10-5 Publication Date:4/12/2022  We are hosting a special reading on Tuesday, April 12, 5:30pm – 6:30pm in honor of Ted's book coming out! Head over to the events page to access the event. No RSVP required. Ace Boggess is author of the novels States of Mercy and A Song Without a Melody, but is known more for his four books of poetry: I Have Lost the Art of Dreaming It So, Ultra Deep Field, The Prisoners, and The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled. His writing, both poetry and prose, has appeared in hundreds of literary journals, including Harvard Review, Notre Dame Review, The Bellingham Review, Rattle, River Styx, North Dakota Quarterly, J Journal, Mid-American Review, and Southern Humanities Review. He received a fellowship for fiction from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts and spent five years in a West Virginia prison, an experience he writes about with intensity and humor. Theodore Worozbyt has received grants from the NEA, and the Georgia and Alabama Councils for the Arts. His work appears widely, in such publications as Antioch Review, Bennington Review, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Poetry, Po&sie, The Southern Review, and TriQuarterly. His books are The Dauber Wings, Letters of Transit, winner of the Juniper Prize, and Smaller Than Death. He teaches at Georgia State University. âI Have Lost the Art of Dreaming It So by Ace Boggess
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âI Have Lost the Art of Dreaming It So is comprised of poems the author wrote as responses to questions he collected over the years, whether asked directly or mined from other poems, novels, billboards, surveys, Facebook memes, leaflets, and many other places. He used these questions as a way of looking inside his life, the lives of the askers, and the world around him. Genre: Poetry ISBN: 978-1-947021-32-7 Release: August 28, 2018 TUESDAY MARRIAGE DEATH by Theodore Worozbyt
$20.00
The first poem in this fourth full-length collection by Theodore Worozbyt closes with an image that suggests a mythical bird, transcendence, unending wealth and success, caesarean birth, violent death, a surgeon lurking in the name of an ancient fish, and an end that comes as a beginning: âGolden eggs /slit from a sturgeon's belly finish it.â So begins the undertaking, in this volume, to compress language itself into a ball, to roll it forth, not toward one overwhelming question, but to scores of them. If the title arcs a life with astonishing and unnerving brevity, and if most of those overwhelming questions remain unanswered, the title poem turns to us, on the final page, to offer the only human consolation we ever get to keep: âLet us begin again.â Book Details Genre: Poetry ISBN:978-1-956692-09-9 Publication Date: April 5, 2022 If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? T. S. Eliot. I would make a roast chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? That I will run out of interesting things to write about. I combat my fears by reading work by other writers. I also spend a lot of time listening to the world around me and paying attention. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? F. Scott Fitzgerald What books are on your nightstand? Greasy Lake (T.C. Boyle), The Immortalists (Chloe Benjamin), By the Wayside (Anne Leigh Parrish). I carry around books by Robert Bly and John Ashbery for poetry inspiration. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? : I like lists. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I was an obedient student. I read every single assigned book. And I loved to read. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My coffee pot. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Don’t give up. Only writers who give up never get published. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Writing energizes me and keeps me balanced. What are common traps for aspiring writers? Trying to chase trends. Trying to write like the masters. What is your writing Kryptonite? A negative political climate. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? No. I have a very active imagination. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Yes, but their work might be terrible and distant. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? Sharon Kurtzman, Jacob Appel, Therese Fowler, Elaine Orr, Crystal Simone Smith, Diane Chamberlain, Barry Peters. Yes, they nourish me as a writer. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? Some of my books work together. Some stand alone. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? Not at all, but I took myself more seriously as a writer. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? Buying more books and attending writers’ conferences What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? I like all authors. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? My first words to my mother: “Let me do it myself” What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? This Side of Paradise. Gatsby gets all the attention. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? A horse or a frog. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? I make my characters up. What does literary success look like to you? I write one new poem or story a week that I am pleased with. What’s the best way to market your books? I give readings, appear on NPR, and teach workshops. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? I do better writing characters from the opposite sex because I have been surrounded by brothers and sons my whole life. I have much male energy. What did you edit out of this book?” I deleted a few poems that felt weaker. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I teach full-time. I sold workers’ compensation before. I think I would study rocks.  Maureen Sherbondy is the author of LINES IN OPPOSITION, a poetry collection.
In Lines in Opposition, Sherbondy explores our need to set limits in times of conflict and confusion. These poems of defiance range from the artistic to the political to the familial, from Basho to Godot, Gretel to Ashbery, the Rockettes to Bubble Yum. At times wry and whimsical, at other times acutely serious, Sherbondy's poems testify to the importance of knowing when and how to draw the line. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Penny Niven. She was my mentor and I’d make truffle mac & cheese with ground bison, roasted brussels sprouts, and Guinness Chocolate Cake. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? That I’ve already written my best stuff. So I just breathe, accept that that may be true, and write anyway. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Oh Ross Gay! I’m utterly in love. What books are on your nightstand? Bible, Jim Butcher’s White Night, Flannery O’Connor’s Prayer Journal Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I LOVE a semicolon! I think it is entirely underused. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Sorry, I read them all. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My “Joy” tea mug If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? The world is better with your voice in it. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Yes, both. Sometimes I’ve had several poems in the back of my head and finally getting them out is energizing. But other times I’m writing some of the harder darker stuff and I just want a nap. What are common traps for aspiring writers? Editing while writing. Just get the words out there and THEN go back. What is your writing Kryptonite? Crippling self-doubt Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Sure! Hate it. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? No, I don’t. I think so much of writing is from an emotional place. Now, my father (award winning novelist John Carenen) says he doesn’t have emotions, but I beg to differ. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? I have an incredible writers’ group full of friends. They are forever encouraging me to to write more and tell the truth. In my head I’m bffs with Leesa Cross-Smith. Her books make me a better writer because she is so honest and beautiful and rich in writing. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? I think it is a body of work, but more tracking my own growth and progress as a human. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? I don’t think it has. I hope not. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? My faux fireplace in my living room. It creates exactly the right cozy vibe. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? When I was maybe 9 I tried writing a Doogie Howser esq journal and shared it with my mother. She teared up and I realized that I could share what I was feeling without having to say a word out loud. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? I’m going to have to go with Leesa Cross-Smith’s Whiskey and Ribbons. I think it is nothing short of brilliant. Her prose is often poetic and I get swept up in her language. Also the Alice Hoffman Practical Magic series. I love her work and I just want to wear warm sweaters, leggings, and fuzzy socks and curl up on the couch with my cat and some tea and get lost in her world. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? I’d like it to be an owl, but in reality my cat Minerva. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? I don’t think I owe them anything. Maybe a heads-up that they’re in the book? How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? Two What does literary success look like to you? Just that strangers found hope or some aspect of themselves in my words. What did you edit out of this book?” Poems that didn’t ring true any more. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? Yoga teacher. I’m certified, but my creativity goes into my writing and my editing.  If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? John Irving. The Hotel New Hampshire made me want to be a writer. He lives in Toronto which is only a couple hours from Buffalo, so he could hop on QEW and be here in no time. I’d cook a big Greek meal for him: salad, dolmades, spanokopita, pastichio, roast lamb, lemon potatoes, and galaktoboureko for dessert. Then we’d clear the dishes, move the table and chairs, and wrestle best two out of three. Ouzo for the winner. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Honestly, nothing scares me about the writing process. It’s the outcome of the process that scares me. What if this book isn’t as good as the last one? What if it gets bad reviews? What if it doesn’t sell? Those are the things that scare me. How do I combat those fears? I try to write the best book I can. Then the book goes out in the world and out of my control and I hope for the best. Ouzo also helps. What books are on your nightstand? The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi and The Fountain by David Scott Hay. I highly recommend both. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I don’t have a favorite or least favorite punctuation mark. I do have an unnatural attraction to italics, however. I love to italicize everything. I’m sure it drives my copy editors nuts. The funny thing is, I know the rules for italicizing, but I go ahead and italicize for no apparent reason. It’s a sickness, I tell ya. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Don’t tell Mrs. Prince from Kenmore West Senior High School, but I never read The Taming of The Shrew in 11th Grade. I don’t think I even started it. I took one look at the cover and decided that the play was untameable. Now I feel guilty and will have to read it. Hell, I bet I still owe Mrs. P a paper, too. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? The MacBook Pro. Sure, the old Remingtons and Royals are cool looking and romantic, but no spell check? No cut and paste? Wite-Out, for God’s sake?? Plus, I do a lot of writing in bed. There’s no way I could balance a typewriter on my chest. The Mac definitely deserves a shout out. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Well, first off, sneaking into other people’s steamy bathrooms is a little weird. But if I did, and I didn’t get caught, shot, or arrested, I’d simply write, ‘Don’t quit’. That’s it. Just a simple reminder that nothing will be published, read, or reviewed if you decide you’re not good enough or that writing is too hard. So, don’t quit. Does writing energize or exhaust you? It energizes me for a while, but then when that high wears off I need a nap. I’m an excellent napper. That’s not bragging. If napping was an Olympic sport, I’m definitely up on that medal stand. What are common traps for aspiring writers? Self-doubt is a big one. It can paralyze a writer to such a degree that they can’t write a single word. Then the frustration sets in and they throw up their arms and decide it’s easier to binge something on Netflix than it is to be brave and write something–anything– and risk failure. The opposite is also true. Aspiring writers sometimes think publication will come more quickly than it does. They don’t understand that you got to play the long game when it comes to writing. You have to live and learn and go through all the shit–heartbreak, sickness, divorce, deaths. And you have to go through the good stuff, too–the births, the weddings, the successes, the friendships, the love affairs. Then once you know a little bit about life, you have to practice your craft, improve your skills, learn how to write. All that doesn’t come quickly for most of us. Sometimes inspiring writers are too impatient to wait for all that and they end up pressing that Netflix button on the remote, too. What is your writing Kryptonite? Late nights. I write from five to seven in the morning. If I’m out late, the chances of me answering that 4:45 bell is pretty slim and then I’m in a crappy mood all day. Luckily, I’m getting older and the late nights aren’t that much of a problem anymore. But every once in a while… Have you ever gotten reader’s block? I used to travel for my day job. I was a real road warrior, hopping on a plane almost every Monday morning. I did most of my reading in airports, on planes, and in hotel rooms. When I switched jobs about six years ago, travel wasn’t required as much in my new role and for the first time in my life I had to make time to read. This did not stop me from buying books and the To Be Read pile grew higher and higher… Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Technical writers can get away with it, I guess, but not fiction writers. A fiction writer needs to create characters that readers care about. If readers don’t care, they’ll stop reading and pick up another book written by a different author. If an author doesn’t feel emotions strongly, they can’t convey them. How can they expect their readers to feel anything if they can’t? It can’t be done. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? This is an easy one. Carla Damron, Dartinia Hull, Beth Uznis Johnson, and Ashley Warlick. We’ve had a group text thread going for ten years. I’d say 90% of those texts have absolutely nothing to do with writing, but we do critique each other's work, share information about agents, publicists, and editors, gossip about other writers, and complain passionately about our publishers. It’s a hell of a lot of fun. And I couldn’t even begin to quantify how they’ve made me a better writer or a better person. They’re family. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? Each book has to stand on its own and make its own way in the world. But I’ve staked out my turf. Buffalo, New York is my hometown, and this is the place I want to write about, the place I want to explore. I’m fascinated by the stories and architecture here. This town feeds my imagination and inspires me to write. So, while each book will stand alone, they’ll be connected by a sense of place, a mythical Buffalo that’s known economic booms and financial busts and is rich with stories about bootleggers, bank robbers, and even the birth of The Lone Ranger, not to mention my own family history. It’s going to be a lot of fun to continue writing about this city and its characters. Oh, and Go Bills! How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? I don’t think publishing changed my process, but age certainly has. For years, the alarm would sound, and I’d go up to my attic office and start writing by 5am. Then one day about four years ago, I couldn’t get out of bed. I was awake, but I couldn’t kick the covers off and go to work. It was a mental thing. I remember it was early November, the house was cold, and I just couldn’t physically get out of bed at 4:45. I missed three or four writing days in a row, and was really beating myself up about it, calling myself weak and lazy and just generally hating myself. Then I realized something: laptops are portable. If I couldn’t go to my laptop that early, my laptop would come to me. Since that realization, I’ve put my fully-charged laptop next to my bed at night and when I wake at 4:45, I just grab it and start writing propped on pillows. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? Tuition for Queens University of Charlotte’s MFA program. Going there was a game changer. Before that, I had been writing for over twenty years with just a handful of published short stories to show for my efforts. I approached Queens as my last shot of ever having any sort of successful writing life. Something clicked while I was there. The concept of ‘story’ became more clear. My writing became cleaner. I graduated ten years ago and have written four books since then. An MFA might not be for everybody, but for me it changed everything. I owe Fred LeBron and his faculty a great deal. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? You know, it’s probably odd to think that a Pulitzer Prize winner is under-appreciated, but I think William Kennedy falls into that category. Do people in their twenties, thirties or forties even know Kennedy? Do they read Ironweed? Those Albany novels–Ironweed, Legs, Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game–made a huge impact on me. I want to do for Buffalo what he did for Albany. Actually, I think I need to go back and re-read those books, to re-learn from the master of historical fiction with a strong sense of place. Hell, I think everyone should. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? I have a one-eyed Shi Tzu named Coco. She’s actually my daughter’s dog, but I’m home all the time so she spends a lot of the day with me. Coco has a bed in my office and has claimed the foot of my bed as her own. She’s been at my side or feet for the writing of all my books. If she’s not my spirit animal, she may very well be my muse. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? Man, I owe them everything: for the inspiration to write about them, for the curiosity to learn more about them and the times they lived in, for giving me a story to flesh out and make my own. I’ve spent so much time with the characters from Rook–Al, Lolly, and Bobby–as that book evolved from a novella, to a trilogy of novellas, to my first novel that when I was done, I actually missed them, even psychotic Bobby. I liked spending all that time with them. I liked getting to know them. In a way, I was sorry that it ended. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? I think I have three early, really sucky novels that were unpublishable. I took one, Slip Kid, and distilled that into a short story that appears in my collection, Muscle Cars. The other two are unsalvageable, I think, but I haven’t looked at those in a long time. Maybe there’s something in them that I can steal. I also have a manuscript that I just finished. I’m calling it my pandemic novel because I started it when we were locked down. I need to revise that one. So, we’ll call it four altogether. What does literary success look like to you? Well, that’s an interesting question. I think my answer to that has evolved over the years. First, success was just to get published, and I accomplished that with the publication of my story collection, Muscle Cars. Then success became getting a novel published. Rook is my debut novel, so that definition of success has become moot. So, at least for now, literary success has become the desire to create a body of published work that when read in its entirety people will say to a friend, “That kid had a hell of a career.” What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? Developing fully developed characters is the same regardless of the character’s gender, so in that respect it’s not any harder or easier for me to write a female character. And the same rules also apply: be original, don’t be cliched, don’t be lazy in the descriptions, etc. Having said that, I’m blessed that the writers personally closest to me are all women and will call me out if I get something wrong about a female character. Carla Damron, Dartinia Hull, Beth Uznis Johnson, and Ashley Warlick are my secret weapons when writing female characters, What did you edit out of this book? Rook evolved from a trilogy of novellas to a novel. The second novella in the trilogy concentrated on Al’s time in federal prison. I had obtained Al’s prison record under The Freedom of Information Act, so I had an understanding of his time behind bars. In addition, he was writing then so I knew what he was writing and where he was being published. He even wrote an account of when Johnny Cash came and gave a concert for the inmates. Plus, I knew about his correspondence and relationship with his writing mentor Dan Marlowe thanks to Charles Kelly’s fine book Gunshots In Another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan. J. Marlowe. So, I had a lot to draw from from that period of Al’s life. But as the novel came into focus, those prison years no longer fit in Lolly’s and Al’s story. Those ninety pages were cut. It was actually a pretty easy decision once I figured out what the book was about. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I can’t imagine not writing.  Stephen G. Eoannou is the author of ROOK, a novel based on the true story of Al Nussbaum. To his unsuspecting wife, Lolly, Al is a loving, chess playing, family man. To J. Edgar Hoover, he is the most cunning fugitive alive. Al is the mastermind behind a string of east coast robberies that has stumped law enforcement.
Order Here.  Alex Miller is a Pittsburgh-based writer, journalist and graphic designer. His fiction has been published widely in print and online journals, including Maudlin House, Whiskeypaper and Rabbit Catastrophe Review. He is the author of the novella, “Osama bin Laden is Dead,” a coming-of-age story set in a small town in post-9/11 America. He is the former head of design for Fifth Wednesday Journal and has lived and worked in Nashville, Chattanooga, Daytona Beach and the Big Island of Hawaii. A Florida native, he grew up in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
Miller is the author of How to Write an Emotionally Resonant Werewolf Novel. The stories in How to Write an Emotionally Resonant Werewolf Novel were written during the tumultuous years following the global financial crisis. They show us glimpses of ourselves as we fold shirts for minimum wage at the mall, scrape together rent money from tips earned waiting tables, stay up until 3 a.m. playing video games, skip school, skip work, smoke cigarettes, watch resignedly as our nation marches to war, cheat on the people we love, linger at night on their social media pages, and find ourselves suddenly alone and at peace, standing on a hilltop with birds. You can join the virtual event tonight, March 30, by popping over to our events calendar and clicking on the event. Invite your friends!!!  PORTLAND, OR; March 29, 2022--Who says a coming-of-age saga can’t extend well into your thirties? In these 12 humor-laced personal essays, Kadzi Mutizwa (a midwestern New Yorker) reflects on her trajectory as a high(ish)-functioning outlier. Themes taken up include mounting self-awareness, facing your foibles and failures, not giving up while becoming more measured about giving in, sucking at yoga, and gradually rising into your full authenticity. All this from a woman who, among other things, refuses to wear makeup. Living of Natural Causes is about recognizing how complex each of us are and should be.
Praise for Kadzi Mutizwa "Quietly smart and sneakily insightful, Living of Natural Causes perfectly captures the unglamorous reality of coming into adulthood. Kadzi Mutizwa is a fierce and honest observer of people and places, and her wise words will stay with you. Reading this book is like a conversation with a true friend." —Kirsa Rein, TV writer/producer, Orange Is the New Black and Dexter: New Blood About Kadzi Mutizwa Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Kadzi Mutizwa now lives in New York City. Living of Natural Causes is her first book. About Unsolicited Press Unsolicited Press was founded in 2012 and is based in Portland, OR. The press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Learn more at www.unsolicitedpress.com. The publisher can be followed on Instagram and Twitter: @unsolicitedp Living of Natural Causes is available on March 29, 2022 as a paperback (178 p.; 978-1-956692-08-2) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. ### Press only, Unsolicited Press 619.354.8005 marketing@unsolicitedpress.com For artist interviews, readings, and podcasts: Kadzi Mutizwa  If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I don’t cook! I would take Paul Celan to a drive-thru fast food and then sit in the car and eat fries with him. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? That I will fail. Tell myself that I will fail. Walk through the fire. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Oh! Ingeborg Bachmann or Anne Carson. Hard to decide! What books are on your nightstand? I can’t read in bed. I have books piled all around my work area and work space. But right next to me now are ALCOOLS (Apollinaire), A POET IN THE WORLD (Levertov), and New Urge Reader 4:Erotic Fiction by New Women Writers (New Urge Editions) Favorite punctuation mark? Why? Holy God the colon: it is a masterpiece of announcement. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My laptop If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Don’t fuck up! Does writing energize or exhaust you? I am unstoppable when doing vispo and asemics. What are common traps for aspiring writers? Do not follow others, or dress like others! You don’t have to wear a scarf or glasses! What is your writing Kryptonite? People shuffling and rooting in the kitchen while I am working Have you ever gotten reader’s block? I am not good at reading. I have to do it my own way, on my own time. I don’t get how people can just sit down and read an entire book. It is super work for me. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Yes. The work can take that over, or not. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? For visual work, lots of folks on Facebook. They push me and encourage me and love me. Sylvia Van Nooten, Amanda Earl, Dona Mayoora, Terri Witek, goes on and on. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? It is what it will be. I believe that they are all connected. By spirit at least! But my work is definitely a building. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? It encouraged me to stay the same! Do what is best for you, always. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? Used bookstores. You should spend $100s even if you don’t have it. Find a way. Give Plasma. There is a great one in Jacksonville, Fl. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? There are so many. I have reactionary moments that dislodge any presence of mind or thoughtfulness, so I have to go back to lots of things. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? Oh! Writing letters to my parents asking for things like kittens! As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? Rasputin What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? No one is real. I owe everyone my best and respect. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? I have lots of projects in the works. It is a cycle. What does literary success look like to you? Well, I think there is an iconic notion to success these days. A cult of personality. For me, it is making a lot of projects with a lot of people. What’s the best way to market your books? I dislike the word “network”, but make friends. Always. Be giving; give your work to people for free in a vital way. They will give back to you by buying your work, books, posting and sharing your work, writing reviews and interviews. Don’t be cheap. Love everyone. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? I don’t know. I don’t like the opposite sex! What did you edit out of this book? LOTS of glitches. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? Art, art, art, performance, art, art. Sex work.  PORTLAND, OR; March 22, 2022— When a family secret comes to light, lives are changed forever in this honest, beautiful, and sometimes painful memoir. When Mark, adopted at birth, set out to FIND his genetic family as an adult, he found something he never expected—three full-blood siblings, including a persistent sister who would alter the course of his life. He finds himself faced with the emotional task of coming to know his entire birth family, along with the unintended impact it has on his parents and his marriage. This raises age-old questions around the understanding of his own identity and his place in the world—now framed in extraordinarily real and explicit terms: What defines family? Nature or nurture? Life rarely affords such an opportunity for self-examination.
The story focuses on the relationship that develops between Mark and his sister, Rachel, as they discover each other through constant letters and eventual face-to-face meetings. When Rachel learns that Mark and his wife are struggling with having children, a radical idea takes over—could she, a sister he never knew and still barely knows, one who lives on the other side of the country, possibly carry their child? Would they trust her to? Including original correspondence between Rachel, Mark, and their biological mother, Marilyn, Love & Genetics follows the events of a tumultuous year in an astonishing story of love, loss, and the meaning of family. ABOUT MARK MACDONALD AND RACHEL ELLIOTT Rachel Elliott is a native Canadian who migrated south (like the geese) to escape the cold. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, Brent, and dog, Swagger, and is a proud mom to two grown daughters. She would rather be at the beach than anywhere else and loves to find an adventure. An avid reader, and recreational writer, this is her first published work. Mark MacDonald lives in Beaverton, Oregon with his wife of twenty-one years, Tina, their two children, Zoe and Alaska, and seemingly countless pets. His day jobs are engineering technology development and education. He is an unabashed science nerd and an avid supporter of women in STEM fields. An author of numerous academic publications and patents, this is his first popular non-fiction work. ABOUT UNSOLICITED PRESS Unsolicited Press is a small publisher in Portland, Oregon with a strong focus on poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction that seeks to push the limits of literature. Some authors the team has worked with include John W. Bateman, Amy Shimshon-Santo, Taylor Garcia, and Kadzi Mutizwa. Learn more at unsolicitedpress.com. Find the press on twitter and instagram: @unsolicitedp. Love and Genetics is available on March 22, 2022 as a paperback (206 p.; 978-1-950730-90-2) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram Book Group. Publicity is being handled by Mindbuck Media. The authors are open to speaking opportunities, interviews with the media, and readings. Electronic review copies are available upon request. ### |
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