 PORTLAND, OR; April 1, 2021--Unsolicited Press releases the print edition of DASH! after having immense success with the ebook release during the summer of 2020. Through this timely collection of short stories for older teens and adults, Irshad Abdal-Haqq unveils the legacy of oppression that countless generations of black Americans have endured. The first story, involving a girl and her tribe who are running for their lives from an evil army that forces female captives into sexual slavery, is reminiscent of a modern-day humanitarian refugee crisis in the Middle East, Africa, or South Asia. In a coming-of-age narrative, a teenaged boy defies law enforcement by fleeing from his rural home in the dark of night after his parents are lynched for seeking fair labor treatment. A third story is the tale of a multiethnic gang of teens who would rather live as a family of outlaws rather than endure the humiliation of racism and poverty. And in yet another, a long-time resident of a gentrifying neighborhood enlists the aid of a newcomer in her quest to fight off eviction for another month.
Action-packed and eloquently expressed, these mesmerizing stories of desperation, hope, and human frailty, will spark the imagination and touch the heart of readers of all backgrounds. And most importantly, they highlight the need for intercultural cooperation against systemic injustices that discount the value of black lives. Distinctive notes at the end of the book provide ample support for educational activities, reading group discussions, and academic study. Irshad Abdal-Haqq writes and promotes fiction and nonfiction that highlight the links between past, present, and evolving intercultural relationships—especially those involving marginalized communities. He is the author of Brotherhood of the Gods, one of the first African American Muslim literary novels. His nonfiction has included scholarly articles and award-winning essays. Irshad’s current literary plans include completion of a memoir, an intercultural dystopian novel, and a unique set of short stories about the African American Muslim experience. A former adjunct associate professor at the University of Virginia and George Mason University Law School, Irshad is a graduate of Amherst College (B.A. Black Studies), Georgetown University Law Center (J.D.), and Antioch School of Law (M.A.T. Clinical Legal Education). Though born in Newark and raised in the Greater New York City area, he now proudly calls Washington, DC home. Dash! is available as a paperback and ebook directly from the publisher and all book retailers. The book is brought to the trade by Ingram. The author is open to media events. Contact Eric at marketing@unsolicitedpress.com Unsolicited Press Announces the Release of Thomas Calder's Debut Novel THE WIND UNDER THE DOOR3/23/2021
 PORTLAND, OR; March 23, 2021—Starting over is always easier among strangers. For Ford Carson, the process meant leaving behind the waves of South Florida in order to forge a new life as a visual artist in the mountains of North Carolina. At the peak of his reinvention, he meets Grace Burnett—a young, wealthy Texas transplant in the midst of her own transformation. A mutual infatuation develops. But when Grace’s estranged husband arrives complications ensue. Matters only worsen when Ford’s own estranged son announces plans to visit for his eighteenth birthday.
Unsolicited Press announces the much-anticipated debut of The Wind Under the Door by Thomas Calder, a debut novel touches on deeply personal family issues and proverbial forks in the road. Advance Praise for THE WIND UNDER THE DOOR The Wind Under the Door is a rare kind of book because it's honest—about the way fathers scar their sons, about the way those sons are doomed to scar themselves, about the generally revolting consequences of indulging one’s narcissism, and of following one’s passions—but it's also brave enough to note the quiet hilariousness of these tragedies. It puts me in mind of Michael Chabon’s novels: concise and taut without being neglectful of the wonderful monsters and crooked angels who populate these pages. Thomas Calder’s is a damn good book. --JP Gritton, author of Wyoming Thomas Calder excavates the everyday to unearth wit and profundity. He knows how to pick out the telling moments in a life and illuminate them. He renders artists and surfers and drifters all with equal compassion. That’s what sets this novel apart: how much Calder cares. A reader can’t help but care deeply about these characters, too. A striking debut, and hopefully the first of many novels to come. --Zach Powers, author of First Cosmic Velocity Calder’s work—about love, loss, art, sex, and fatherhood—is alive with moody, complex feeling, and populated with wonderfully human characters making terribly human mistakes.--Jeni McFarland, author of The House of Deep Water Thomas Calder has written a novel that is reminiscent of certain mid-twentieth century classics and yet utterly grounded in the current moment, reminding us that while the things that surround us—social media, rock bands, art—might develop and change, the drives toward sex and expression and perhaps even something like immortality are very much still in place. The Wind Under the Door is a wise and compassionate novel full of scenes so psychologically astute and viscerally real that they will be lodged in my memory for a good long time. A hell of a debut. --Ian Stansel, author of The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo This isn’t just a novel, but a whole world, alive and crackling with real characters. Calder gives his characters’ lives room to breathe and bend, and tends to both their wounds and their joy in careful, exquisite scenes. This is the journey of a man lost in his own life, with art to make and love to give, searching for somewhere to put it all. When it was over, I missed these characters as though they were my own extended family, living beautiful, messy, and very American lives. --Aja Gabel, author of The Ensemble The Wind Under the Door is a love letter to contemporary Asheville and the North Carolina mountains, but it's also a love letter to our reckless hopeful moments and dangerous impulses. Thomas Calder writes as if James Salter and Gail Godwin had a literary child who grew up listening to Arcade Fire and Future Islands. This is a beautifully nuanced and resonant novel. --Wiley Cash, bestselling author of The Last Ballad and A Land More Kind Than Home Thomas Calder’s The Wind Under the Door is a stunning collage, every page of it layered with richly textured characters trying hard to hold onto their taped-together ideas of themselves. Even as Ford, Grace, JR, Emily, and Bailey trace tragic paths across the edges of memory and loss—their fascinating personal disconnections overlapping, intersecting—Calder gives space to buoyant bouts of humor and hard-won wit, with generous splashes of whiskey, sex, and surfing, to boot. There’s no question about it: this vibrant debut marks the emergence of a daring talent. --Joseph Scapellato, The Made-Up Man About Thomas Calder Thomas Calder’s writing has appeared in Gulf Coast, Miracle Monocle, The Collective Quarterly, and elsewhere. He earned his BA in English from the University of Florida and his MFA in creative writing at the University of Houston. He now lives in Asheville, N.C. with his wife, daughter and dog. 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. THE WIND UNDER THE DOOR is available on March 23, 2021 as a paperback (234 p.; 978-1-950730-64-3) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram.  PORTLAND, OR; March 16, 2021— Unsolicited Press is proud to announce the immediate available of Anne Leigh Parrish's a winter night. Part psychological study and part romantic comedy, A Winter Night reintroduces the fictional Dugan family of upstate New York. Eldest daughter Angie may have found the man of her dreams, but has trouble believing a word he says. Told bluntly yet with tenderness and humor, A Winter Night brings Angie face-to-face with herself, her fears, and her ability to truly love.
Advance Praise for A Winter Night "Anne Leigh Parrish does it once again. In A Winter Night, she brings her signature wisdom and wit to the world of Angie Dugan, a retirement home social worker who spends her days caring for others while yearning to be cared for herself. Part social commentary in the spirit of Jane Austen, and at moments romantic comedy in the vein of Susan Elizabeth Phillips, A Winter Night is ultimately a poignant and powerful novel that delves deep into the meaning of trust, understanding and forgiveness. Anne Leigh Parrish proves the rare writer who can make readers laugh hard while taking them on a serious journey--and this is a journey upon which readers most certainly wish to embark."--Jacob M. Appel, author of Millard Salter's Last Day. “An outstanding, unsentimental portrait of family, love, and unavoidable hardships.” --From the KIRKUS REVIEW (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anne-leigh-parrish/a-winter-night/): About Anne Leigh Parrish Anne Leigh Parrish is the author of eight previously published books: What Nell Dreams, a novella & stories (Unsolicited Press, 2020); Maggie’s Ruse, a novel, (Unsolicited Press, 2017); The Amendment, a novel (Unsolicited Press, 2017); Women Within, a novel (Black Rose Writing, 2017); By the Wayside, stories (Unsolicited Press, 2017); What Is Found, What Is Lost, a novel (She Writes Press, 2014); Our Love Could Light The World, stories (She Writes Press, 2013); and All The Roads That Lead From Home, stories (Press 53, 2011). 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. A WINTER NIGHT is available on March 16, 2021 as a paperback (246 p.; 978-1-950730-60-5) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram.  PORTLAND, OR; March 9, 2021—Unsolicited Press announces the immediate release of WHILE THE KETTLE BOILS by S.B. Borgersen, a fervent and economical collection featuring 150 perfectly manicured micro-fictions. Jude Higgins, the event organizer at Bath Flash Fiction, called the collection, “Witty and insightful... Borgersen’s tiny stories have inspired other writers from all over the world.”
Readers will be thrilled to find exclusive reading material at the back of the book. About S.B. Borgersen S.B. Borgersen is a British/Canadian author, of middle England and Hebridean ancestry, whose favoured genres are flash and micro fiction, and poetry. She had a diverse career path, an analyst in a shoe factory, the same thing for a children’s book publisher, teaching art, and filing for the civil service, but mostly she climbed a precarious ladder in the IT industry culminating in strategy and project management, which, by necessity in those days, included writing writing writing mountains of non-fiction — always allowing herself to be slightly creative with proposals, reports, technical and training documentation. Sue turned her back on industry and commerce in the early nineties, escaping the stressful rat-race and finding the simple life and peaceful place she’d always sought to allow for creativity. That place was Nova Scotia where she returned to her skills from art school and made an uncomplicated living as a visual artist and potter. That is, until she got the creative writing bug. Since 2000 her writing has won prizes, been mentioned in Hansard and published internationally in literary journals and anthologies (print and online). The list of publications is extensive and can be found at www.sueborgersen.com. She is a member of both The Society of Authors UK, and The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia. Sue lives in a crumbling old house on the shores of Nova Scotia with her patient husband and a clutch of lovable rowdy dogs. 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. WHILE THE KETTLE BOILS (978-1-950730-74-2) is available on March 9, 2021 in print and and as ebook through all major retailers and the publisher.  PORTLAND, OR; March 2, 2021—Unsolicited Press announces the debut of A CONTEMPORARY PORTRAIT OF THE SOUTHWEST by Connor M. Bjotvedt.
A CONTEMPORARY PORTRAIT OF THE SOUTHWEST is a love letter to the Southwest. The collection follows the journey of a man named John Whenn who, after accepting his position as an adjunct faculty member at Central Arizona Community College, investigates the Southwest and produces a politically charged collection of op-eds which describe in vivid and lurid detail the landscape, people, and history of the region. Connor M. Bjotvedt received his Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Spalding University. He was awarded the Charles E. Bull Creative Writing Scholarship for Poetry by Northern Arizona University where he received his Bachelor of Arts in English, Literature, and Creative Writing. Connor was a 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee and his work has appeared in Rain Taxi, the Santa Fe Literary Review, the Haiku Journal, Three Line Poetry, catheXis Northwest Press, and The Wayfarer, among others. 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. A CONTEMPORARY PORTRAIT OF THE SOUTHWEST is available on March 2, 2021 as a paperback and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram.  PORTLAND, OR; March 23, 2021--Unsolicited Press announces the release of HOUSE OF THE SILVERFISH by Elizabeth Vignali, a poetry collection. HOUSE OF THE SILVERFISH explores the reckoning of inevitable loss on both a personal and global scale, from learning to loosen our hold on children as they grow older to coming to terms with our annihilation of vast swathes of species. The story of an unraveling marriage is interspersed with poems questioning ownership of all kinds—of place, of people, and of time itself.
Elizabeth Vignali is the author of Object Permanence (Finishing Line Press 2015) and Endangered [Animal] (Floating Bridge Press 2019), and coauthor of Your Body A Bullet (Unsolicited Press 2018). Her work has appeared in Willow Springs, Cincinnati Review, Mid-American Review, Tinderbox, The Literary Review, and others. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she works as an optician, coproduces the Bellingham Kitchen Session reading series, and serves as poetry editor of Sweet Tree Review. HOUSE OF THE SILVERFISH is available on February 28, 2021 as a paperback (132 p.; 978-1-950730-73-5) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram. Author is available for virtual media events. 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.  PORTLAND, OR; February 23, 2021 — Unsolicited Press announces the immediate release of The Messiah’s Customary Diner Booth, a poetry collection, by Marion Deal. Sit. The Messiah’s Customary Diner Booth welcomes you. Yes, you: no matter what truth you’re spinning, so long as you’re spinning it earnestly. You’ve got a place with these poems cast as an intellectual fossil record of shit and summoners and something that Rimbaud would probably like, poems as a gathering ground for Soviet spies and child prophets, disaffected professors and radiant spinsters. Share a soggy grilled cheese with drifters who could just as easily show up enshrined on a tablet of Sumerian pictograms as lounge in a 50s diner. We’re open all night.
About Marion Deal Marion Deal chases emergent things and poetic beasts from Nepali monasteries to Jim Morrison’s grave, and is currently braiding together psycholinguistics, poetics, and Buddhist scholarship at the University of Rochester to craft an elegant tool of inquiry. Two chapbooks of theirs are forthcoming: Cool Talks, Dead I Guess (Bone & Ink Press, 2019) and The Messiah’s Customary Diner Booth (Unsolicited Press, 2021). Their poetry and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in journals such as The Rumpus, The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review, The Seventh Quarry (UK), Chaleur Magazine, Yes Poetry, and FIVE:2:ONE, among others, and have been nationally recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers and the National YoungArts Foundation. Their translation work was longlisted for the Young Poets Network 2019 translation challenge. They have performed they work in French, Italian, and English at venues from a Shandong Province mountain range to the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and are a proud veteran poetry whore of Paris’ Le Bordel de la Poésie. 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 Messiah’s Customary Diner Booth is available on February 23, 2021 as a paperback (48 p.; 978-1-950730-68-1) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram.  PORTLAND, OR; February 9, 2021—Unsolicited Press announces the much-anticipated debut of THE DISTANCE OF MERCY by Shelly Milliron Drancik. A story of human connection across the ethnic aisle, The Distance of Mercy centers on Nicolette, haunted by her mother’s death in postwar Vienna. As a young adult, she betrays her father by accepting money from her grandmother, a former Nazi supporter, to study the violin in Chicago in the late 60s. Nicolette is hired to work with Tillie, an African-American widow who lost her young husband in the war. Through many barriers, an unexpected friendship develops. While Nicolette’s length of stay in America is brief, the impact of her arrival and the decision she must make before returning to Vienna are life-altering for both women.
Told in parallel narratives and against the backdrop of historical events, the story explores the depths of love, loss, and buried grief and uncovers the lingering and terrible effects of war and racial injustice. About Shelly Milliron Drancik Shelly Milliron Drancik earned her MFA in fiction from Queens University of Charlotte. Her short fiction has appeared in various literary journals and her screenplay, based on this novella, has earned a number of awards. She lives with her children in Chicago. 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. Unsolicited Press has social media accounts on Instagram (@unsolicitedpress) and Twitter (@unsolicitedP). THE DISTANCE OF MERCY is available on February 9, 2021 as a paperback (250p.; 978-1-50730-59-9) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram.  Andrew Brenza’s Spool is a reckoning of our diminished natural world through the register of a disjointed, smeared, and unraveling poetics. Consisting of a series of breathless lyrical and concrete poems, Spool strives to represent both nature’s beauty as well as the tragedy of its destruction, a destruction which is, ultimately, the destruction of ourselves. But the book does not descend entirely into despair, for the author’s novel approaches to poetic expression suggest an alternative way that humanity might imagine its place in the world, a way that fundamentally incorporates and enacts humanity’s vital connection to nature. It is through this alternative poetics that Brenza offers hope, albeit a difficult one, since it asks us not just to change the way we think about nature, but the way we think about and within language itself.
About Andrew Brenza Andrew Brenza is an American experimental poet and librarian. His recent chapbooks include Poems in C (Viktlösheten Press), Bitter Almonds & Mown Grass (Shirt Pocket Press), Waterlight (Simulacrum Press), and Excerpt from Alphabeticon (No Press). His full-length collections of visual poetry include Gossamer Lid (Trembling Pillow Press), Automatic Souls (Timglaset Editions), Album, in Concrete (Alien Buddha Press) and Alphabeticon & Other Poems (RedFoxPress). Where to Buy SPOOL SPOOL is available directly from the publisher and all major retailers such as Amazon. Readers who prefer to shop at independent bookstores can buy a copy through Indiebound. An ebook is also available through Amazon's Kindle program.  PORTLAND, OR; JANUARY 26, 2021—Unsolicited Press announces the much-anticipated debut of MeaningFULL: 23 Life-Changing Stories of Conquering Dieting, Weight, & Body Image Issues by Alli Spotts-De Lazzer, a nonfiction collaboration that takes on the normalized rhetoric of eating and body image.
A $702 billion global diet/nutrition and weight loss industry shows that people worldwide are devoted to achieving maximum health and their desired bodies. Yet mainstream approaches are failing these individuals, and sadly, science proves this. Intent on gaining the “health” and “happiness” that diets promise, consumers keep trying. They become sad and frustrated, believing they’re failing when they’re not. They simply need a legitimate, alternative path. Spotts-Delazzer’s book offers a new path. The inspiring book is a blend of motivational self-help, memoir, psychology, and health and wellness. Through the contributors’ diverse, real-life mini-memoirs followed by Spotts-De Lazzer’s commentaries, readers will learn about themselves and discover their unique, unconventional formulas for conquering their issues. Along the way, MeaningFULL will also guide them towards more self-appreciation, wellness, and fulfillment. About Alli Spotts-De Lazzer Alli Spotts-De Lazzer is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, a “CEDS” Certified Eating Disorders Specialist, a CEDS Supervisor, and a person on the other side of her own decades-long struggle with food battles and body dislike. Alli has presented educational workshops at conferences, graduate schools, and hospitals; published articles in academic journals, trade magazines, and online information hubs; and appeared as an eating disorders expert on local news. Her professional-related volunteerism includes co-chairing committees for both the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals and the Academy for Eating Disorders and creating #ShakeIt for Self-Acceptance!®, a series of public events sparking conversations about self-acceptance through fun, motivating messages. She was named the 2017 iaedp Member of the Year, and Mayor Garcetti declared July 13, 2017 “#ShakeIt for Self-Acceptance! Day” in the City of Los Angeles. 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. Unsolicited Press has social media accounts on Instagram (@unsolicitedpress) and Twitter (@unsolicitedP). MEANINGFULL: 23 LIFE-CHANGING STORIES OF CONQUERING DIETING, WEIGHT, & BODY IMAGE ISSUES is available on January 26, 2021 as a paperback (282 p.; 978-1-950730-69-8), audiobook (ACX), and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram. ### Press only, Unsolicited Press Eric Rancino 619.354.8005 marketing@unsolicitedpress.com For artist interviews, readings, and podcasts: Alli Spotts-De Lazzer MeaningFULLread@gmail.com  Portland, OR— January 26, 2021 — Unsolicited Press Announces Availability of "The Omnipotent Sorcerer" By Roger Aplon. The Omnipotent Sorcerer by Roger Aplon is a poetry collection to be reckoned with -- touching on themes such as relationships, grief, politics, and other provoking topics.
Roger Aplon was a founder and managing editor of Chicago’s CHOICE Magazine with John Logan and Aaron Siskind. He has thirteen books published, twelve of which are poetry (most recently Mustering What’s Left Selected and New Poems 1976-2017). Intimacies (2006) is a book of prose. Aplon has received many awards and fellowships including an arts fellowship from the Helen Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico. Learn more at www.rogeraplon.com. THE OMNIPOTENT SORCEROR (978-1-950730-66-7) is available (paperback and ebook) directly from the publisher (www.unsolicitedpress.com) and all major retailers. Ingram Book Group distributes the title to the market. The author is available for media appearances, interviews, and readings. 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.  Unsolicited Press announces a light-hearted and intellectual fireside chat featuring Raki Kopernik, Anne Leigh Parrish, and Lizz Schumer on January 30th, 2021 at 5 PM PST using Zoom. Kopernik, Parrish, and Schumer are known for their queer and feminist tones, often working to dismantle stereotypes often ascribed to men and women. Readers, writers, and the media are invited to watch the event. The authors will discuss a variety of topics and briefly read from one of their books. Details for how to join the discussion are listed at the end of this announcement. About the Authors Raki Kopernik is a queer, Jewish fiction and poetry writer. Her collection THE THINGS YOU LEFT contains thirty-seven stories built on magical realism and seemingly inconsequential moments between sweet and strange loners that meet in the space between the heart and the mind. She is also the author of The Memory House (The Muriel Press 2019) which was a finalist for both the Red Hen Press Nonfiction Award and the Minnesota Book Award, and The Other Body (Dancing Girl Press 2017). Her work has appeared in numerous publications and has been nominated for several other awards, including the Pushcart Prize for fiction. She lives in Minneapolis. Anne Leigh Parrish is the author of eight previously published books: What Nell Dreams, a novella & stories (Unsolicited Press, 2020); Maggie’s Ruse, a novel, (Unsolicited Press, 2017); The Amendment, a novel (Unsolicited Press, 2017); Women Within, a novel (Black Rose Writing, 2017); By the Wayside, stories (Unsolicited Press, 2017); What Is Found, What Is Lost, a novel (She Writes Press, 2014); Our Love Could Light The World, stories (She Writes Press, 2013); and All The Roads That Lead From Home, stories (Press 53, 2011). Lizz Schumer penned BIOGRAPHY OF A BODY, a lyrical meander through what it means to be a messy, flawed, imperfect human. In personal essays and snippets of verse, it probes the influence of religion on a person’s psyche, how the legacy of traditional femininity work their way under the skin, and the many pitfalls of living in a female body. Schumer is the senior staff writer for Good Housekeeping, Prevention, and Woman’s Day and her freelance work has appeared in The New York Times, HuffPo, Bon Appetit, The Spruce, VinePair, SELF, and others. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Goddard College and is also the author of Buffalo Steel (Black Rose Writing 2013). Her essays, poetry, fiction, and hybrid text have appeared in Punchnel’s, Wordgathering, Ploughshares.com, Ghost City Review, Entropy Mag, and elsewhere. She teaches journalism and communications courses as an adjunct professor at the New York University School of Professional Studies and as a writing consultant at the NYC Writer’s Room. 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. Join Zoom Meeting Link: https://zoom.us/j/98832797405?pwd=TDFDQ09DU3J4UHZaVXQ5UlZveFlTQT09 Meeting ID: 988 3279 7405 Passcode: q9ket5  PORTLAND, OR; JANUARY 19, 2021—Unsolicited Press announces the much-anticipated debut of Biography of a Body by Lizz Schumer. BIOGRAPHY OF A BODY is a lyrical meander through the development of a messy, flawed, imperfect human and what it means to live in a society that both pulls a person into itself and fiercely pushes back. In personal essays and snippets of verse that shift back and forth through time and place, it fidgets with the puzzle pieces of a life that are at once starkly unique and glaringly obvious.
The narrator probes the influence of religion on a person’s psychological development, how the legacy of traditional femininity works their way under her skin, and the many pitfalls of living in a body that doesn’t always conform to expectations, both from within and the world pressing on it. Follow the narrator as she grapples with an eating disorder that threatens to consume her body and soul, undergoes a sexual awakening that reverberates through her social structure and understanding of herself, tries to find her place in a world where the rules are always changing, and fumbles to understand how much of her personhood is a compilation of outside influences she can barely pinpoint, and how much is wholly her own. This is less a narrative than a trail of breadcrumbs through an experience, where strange things whisper from the shadows and draw the reader into the dappled darkness. Readers will find themselves wandering along with her, grasping onto vivid insights and suggestions of feelings that will stay with them until long after the last page is turned. About Lizz Schumer Lizz Schumer is the senior staff writer for Good Housekeeping, Prevention, and Woman’s Day and her freelance work has appeared in The New York Times, HuffPo, Bon Appetit, The Spruce, VinePair, SELF, and others. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Goddard College and is also the author of Buffalo Steel (Black Rose Writing 2013). Her essays, poetry, fiction, and hybrid text have appeared in Punchnel’s, Wordgathering, Ploughshares.com, Ghost City Review, Entropy Mag, and elsewhere. She teaches journalism and communications courses as an adjunct professor at the New York University School of Professional Studies and as a writing consultant at the NYC Writer’s Room. 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. Unsolicited Press has social media accounts on Instagram (@unsolicitedpress) and Twitter (@unsolicitedP). BIOGRAPHY OF A BODY is available on January19, 2021 as a paperback (212 p.; 978-1-950730-70-4 ) and e-book. The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram. An e-galley can be provided to those interested in partnering with us to promote the title. ### Press only, Unsolicited Press Eric Rancino 619.354.8005 marketing@unsolicitedpress.com For artist interviews, readings, and podcasts: Lizz Schumer schumeea@gmail.com  PORTLAND, OR; JANUARY 12, 2021--Unsolicited Press announces the much-anticipated debut of The Animal Within by Kathrine Yets. The Animal Within is filled with poems that want to swim together, focusing on animal and human nature. A few are ekphrastic, based on photography by Jaimie Huycke and Dennis Liddell. Dive in and readers find a world where horses speak their minds, crawdaddies sing, and mermaids find lust. Wolves howl “ahwoo at the full strawberry harvest moon in June,” and birds do more than flap their wings, but rather create a voice for the oppressed. Humans step in, personas based off the author, and consider loss, depression, and love— inner-self mixed with creature habits— scratching down a lover’s back or crying in a zoo. One persona connects with water, skinny-dipping her way into a galaxy reflection, “as quiet as you would expect it to be [she] sends a ripple through the moon.” Hawaiian Goddesses tell their story about how the Yoni Crater came to be with a crash. Nature takes note and gets noticed, exploring transcendental and organic aspects. “The stream has no objection” as the poet takes liberty in playing with ideas of what it might be saying. A divine devotion to creatures large and small— flora and fauna finding a voice among calm and chaos, depending on the scene created. Each poem cups a piece of life— ideas not too far fetched— mundane and supernatural. With sounds all around, the author uses anaphora, alliteration, assonance, and other devices to give these animals and personas personality of their own. This chapbook implores readers to take a hiatus, step outside of themselves, and experience the animal within.
About Kathrine Yets Kathrine Yets lives and teaches in Wisconsin. Her works can be found in various literary magazines. She has two published chapbooks: The Animal Within and So I Can Write. In 2017, she won the Jade Ring Award and wears the ring proudly on her right hand each and every day. When she is not writing or teaching, she can be found at the park swinging on swings or taking a nap under a tree. She loves spending time with her Brad at home or running around the city. Her worlds right now are her nephews, Sweet Baby James and Cameron. 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. Unsolicited Press has social media accounts on Instagram (@unsolicitedp) and Twitter (@unsolicitedP). The Animal Within is available on January 12, 2021 as a paperback (978-1-950730-98-8) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram.  PORTLAND, OR; JANUARY 12, 2021—Unsolicited Press announces the much-anticipated debut of Swallowing the Stem of Adam’s Apple by Laura Kiesel. Kiesel plumbs the depths of familial dysfunction, and the wretched inheritance of addiction, thoroughly and with impressive nuance in Swallowing the Stem of Adam’s Apple, combining integrity and personal grit that’s interwoven throughout her lyrical style. She writes beautifully about her fractured relationship with her mother, and the ripple effect it has had throughout the rest of her life. Her work is an unflinching examination of the erotic implications of romantic relationships and filled with visually exhilarating metaphors and analogies.
Raised a Roman Catholic, Kiesel describes religious rituals and makes use of Christian symbols, while referencing Biblical figures and stories, in ways that are simultaneously subversive and familiar. Illness and death are common themes in her work, whom Kiesel often personifies and treats as old friends--more accurately, rivals or frenemies--competing for her time and attention and that of her loved ones. Instead of keeping them at arm’s length, Kiesel embraces them and the macabre reminders her daily life offers her of her own and others’ shared mortality and finiteness. Swallowing the Stem of Adam’s Apple does not demur in its assessment of the self and society but instead navigates the trials and tribulations of the human condition with visceral astuteness. About Laura Kiesel 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. 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. Unsolicited Press has social media accounts on Instagram (@unsolicitedpress) and Twitter (@unsolicitedP). Swallowing the Stem of Adam’s Apple is available on January 12, 2021 as a paperback (48p.; 978-1-950730-72-8) and e-book (all major retailers). The title is distributed to the trade by Ingram.  PORTLAND, OR; January 1, 2021—Unsolicited Press announces the ebook release of FISHERMEN;S FINGERS by S.B. Borgersen as a teaser to her upcoming flash fiction collection. Fishermen’s Fingers peeks into the underbelly of a remote coastal community, revealing how poverty, an unwanted pregnancy, and a bad start in life can lead to a precarious adulthood for those who are different, like Lenny.
There are no real worries in small communities where houses are not locked and children are sent alone to the store for a loaf of bread, but when 10-year-old Betty isn’t in her usual seat at school, her teacher, Miss Watson, has to explain to students the perils of talking to strangers. Like most aftermaths, this becomes a story of ‘if-onlys,’ where naivety and trust blind those who should have seen, should have known. But where strong bonds of friendship, love and caring are never far away. About S.B. Borgersen S.B. Borgersen is a British/Canadian author, of middle England and Hebridean ancestry, whose favoured genres are flash and micro fiction, and poetry. She is a loyal member of The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia and an enthusiastic member of the international online writers' group for expats, Writers Abroad. Sue lives in a crumbling old house on the shores of Nova Scotia with her patient husband and a clutch of lovable rowdy dogs. She has two middle-aged children. 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. FISHERMEN'S FINGERS is available on January 1, 2021 as an ebook through all major ebook retailers and the publisher.  Portland, OR— December 15, 2020 — Unsolicited Press announces immediate availability of The Tin Can House and Other Stories by Susan Pepper Robbins. The Tin Can House and Other Stories is a remarkable short story collection by renowned Virginia author Susan Pepper Robbins. Featuring some of her best short stories, the collection delivers powerful, gritty characters full of heart and spirit. Ranging from longer stories to one-page hitters, Robbins masters the pen and sprays ink economically.
From the collection: "The A-Frame was shingled in flattened tin oil cans on the wrong side so the old names of Esso and Texaco didn’t show. The sun shot a pale greenish light through the oak trees’ April leaves. The tin house gave the right impression of one of the crazy projects thought up by our delicensed doctor, hammering out all those cans after using a can opener to take the round tops and bottoms off. Those he used for decorative trim around the two doorways and four windows. Thousands of shingles nailed, one by one, three nails each, to the beams, in the 1950’s. Some people continued to go to him not in his office, of course, which had to be closed, but at his ranch house where he would invite you in and listen to your symptoms. Not ours. We never went back to him after the sheriff picked him up for walking in the next county dressed as a woman. Who’d want to do that Fred asked me, serious and not meaning anything about my beige and navy outfits." Susan Pepper Robbins lives in rural Virginia where she grew up. Her first novel was published when she was fifty (“One Way Home,” Random House, 1993). Her fiction has won prizes (the Deep South Prize, the Virginia Prize) and has been published in journals. Her collection of stories “Nothing But the Weather” was published by the indie press Unsolicited Press, and her second novel, “There Is Nothing Strange,” was published in England in 2016,. A second collection of stories will be published in 2019. "Local Speed," a novel, came out in 2018 from Unsolicited Press. Her stories focus on the drama of ordinary lives. She teaches writing at Hampden-Sydney College and wrote a dissertation on Jane Austen at the University of Virginia. The Tin Can House and Other Stories by Susan Pepper Robbins. is available as a paperback and ebook. Ingram Book Group distributes the title to the market. 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. Unsolicited Press announces the immediate availability of TO THE RIVER, WE ARE MIGRANTS by Ayendy Bonifacio, an American from the Domican Republic. In this nostalgic volume, the image of the river carries us to and away from home. The river is a timeline that harkens back to Bonifacio’s childhood in the Dominican Republic and ends with the sudden passing of his father.
Through panoramic and time-bending gazes, TO THE RIVER, WE ARE MIGRANTS leads us through the rural foothills of Bonifacio’s birthplace to the streets of East New York, Brooklyn. These lyrical poems, using both English and Spanish, illuminate childhood visions and memories and, in doing so, help us better understand what it means to be a migrant in these turbulent times. Advance Praise for TO THE RIVER, WE ARE MIGRANTS “I’ve learned, unlearned my language too many times,” writes Ayendy Bonifacio in To the River, We Are Migrants. Childhood, exile, faith, grief are all part of the language he shapes into luminous poems that remember in English and in Spanish. His voice is lyrical, direct—he confesses “[t]ime has made us strange” but also transforms a river into a rosary. These poems are exquisite, heartfelt." —Eduardo C. Corral "The actual Dominican river that gives title to Ayendy Bonifacio’s To the River, We Are Migrants is also a river of words, the river of life, the river of death, the river dividing us from our truest selves and the river that delivers us home again. These are poems of immigration, separation and grief, but they are also poems that honor home, family and the enduring powers of language and memory. I am deeply instructed and moved by the mundos of this beautiful book." —Kathy Fagan "Desde Broadway Junction hasta Bao, Ayendy nos lleva en su tren—the one que comienza with a word-dream born in the eyes of his father. Está lloviendo desde adentro, desde que dejó de llamar mundos a los countries. Cada verso estruja la nostalgia, y nos presta un rosario in order to survive here-there and en rotundo futuro que se rompe. Corre el agua con cada metáfora, con el pasaporte que se tragó el campo donde se regresan a descansar las palabras. Este poemario es una corriente encima del cuerpo, un ardor, pain, el recuerdo de su abuelo and the smell del idioma que tuvo que darle rompa en su lengua. To the River, We Are Migrants nos lleva “más allá de líneas de inmigración,” el principio y el final de los días largos cuando la pérdida de un ser querido estruja la mirada, “paper planes when our motherlands liberated us,” es un basement donde reciben los campesino, es la habitación donde su madre hospeda los nuevos recién llegando que parió Quisqueya. Vamos soñando in english and español silenciosamente “para que las nubes no se rompieran.” Leer a Ayendy, es encontrarnos where nos habíamos dejado; en la desembocadura de un río que nos dispersó en alguna parte con una promesa hecha cicatriz." --Fior E. Plasencia About Ayendy Bonifacio Ayendy Bonifacio was born in Santiago De Los Caballeros, Dominican Republic and raised in East New York, Brooklyn. He holds a Ph.D. in English from Ohio State University. His areas of scholarship include American literature and culture, including Latino/a/x studies; digital humanities; public humanities; transamerican poetics, specifically the reprint poem as a form of public discourse; and hemispheric studies. His current book project, Poems Go Viral: Reprint Culture in the US Popular Press (1855-1866), draws examples from over 200 English- and Spanish-language popular dailies and weeklies between January 1855 and December 1866. This book studies what Bonifacio calls the virality of nineteenth-century poems. Akin to the way an image, video, and a piece of information go viral on the internet today, certain popular poems and poets circulated rapidly and widely through newspaper reproduction. His research is published and/or forthcoming in American Periodicals: A Journal of History, Criticism, and Bibliography; Prose Studies: History, Theory, Criticism; Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature; Postcolonial Interventions: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Postcolonial Studies; The Journal: A Literary Magazine; and The American Review of Books. He is also the author of Dique Dominican (Floricanto Press, 2017) and To The River, We Are Migrants (Unsolicited Press, 2020). In 2018, The Latino Author named Dique Dominican one of the “top ten best non-fiction books of 2017.” Connect with Bonifacio at www.ayendybonifacio.com. TO THE RIVER, WE ARE MIGRANTS by Ayendy Bonifacio Availability TO THE RIVER, WE ARE MIGRANTS is available on December 8, 2020 as a paperback (978-1-950730-56-8) and e-book. The book is brought to the trade by Ingram. The publisher and author have active publicity and marketing campaigns in place. 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. The pandemic has made shopping for friends and family quite different, so our team would like to make it easier to send gifts to your favorite book lover that reduces in-store contact. For the holidays, we are offering two gift card options that make gift-giving simple and affordable. The Unsolicited Press $25 Gift Card offers a unique experience that connects the recipient with our editors to help them find the perfect book (a book concierge experience). You simply buy the gift card and provide the recipient's information and we will handle the rest. The Unsolicited Press PayPal Gift Card is offered through PayPal and is a more traditional gift card that permits you to select how much you want to send to the recipient. The gift card funds are stored in a PayPal wallet and can be used however and whenever the recipient wants to directly on our website. Both are excellent options. No matter what you choose, our press appreciates your decision to support our small press.
 Portland, OR— November 24, 2020 — Unsolicited Press humbly announces the long-awaited availability of What Is Said About Elephants, a collection of short fiction by the late Wendell Mayo. Unsolicited Press and Wendell Mayo were in the middle of preparing his short story collection for publication when he suddenly passed away. Our team, in coordination with Mr. Mayo's wife decided to publish the collection posthumously to honor his life and support the local animal shelter in Lorian county. All profit from the sale of What Is Said About Elephants will go to the Friendship Animal Protective League in Lorian County.
Mayo begins his new collection with a brief tale and utterance made by an elephant trainer at a zoo: “It’s said,” Beasley says, “an elephant won’t pass by a dead elephant without casting a branch or some dust on the body. A kind of homage, I suppose.” In a variety of ways, the twelve stories that follow are tributes to characters who find themselves on the fringes, at the sides of roads. In “When the Moon Was Ours for the Taking,” a man recalls a brief few days he found himself fishing with his NASA-physicist father who is otherwise preoccupied with the Space Race craze of the 1960s. In “A Mindfulness Becoming Less,” an aging, out-of work Homer Lynch convinces himself he doesn’t need the job and health care he needs. In “Vigil for Ammospiza nigréscens,” a veteran of the Vietnam War searches for an extinct bird in the salt marshes of Florida, haunted by the North Vietnamese soldier he killed. In “Burn Barrel,” Cole, a jobless college graduate, despairing that he can never pay his student loans, begins to burn all his university papers, in a strange effort to erase the debt. In these and other stories, Mayo’s characters are people we think we know, in situations we think we understand—and then realize in flashes of truth we can see them—and ourselves—in new ways. Wendell Mayo (1953-2019) was a native of Corpus Christi, Texas. He authored five collections of short stories, recently, Survival House with SFASU Press in 2018. His other collections are The Cucumber King of Kėdainiai, winner of the Subito Press Award for Innovative Fiction; Centaur of the North (Arte Público Press), winner of the Aztlán Prize; B. Horror and Other Stories (Livingston Press); and a novel-in-stories, In Lithuanian Wood (White Pine Press). Over one-hundred of his short stories have appeared widely in magazines and anthologies, including Yale Review, Harvard Review, Manoa, Missouri Review, Boulevard, New Letters, Threepenny Review, Indiana Review, and Chicago Review. He received the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, a Fulbright to Lithuania (Vilnius University), two Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, and a Master Fellowship from the Indiana Arts Commission. He taught fiction writing in the MFA/BFA programs at Bowling Green State University for over twenty years. WHAT IS SAID ABOUT ELEPHANTS (978-1-950730-55-1) is available (paperback and ebook) directly from the publisher (www.unsolicitedpress.com) and all major retailers. Ingram Book Group distributes the title to the market. The author is available for media appearances, interviews, and readings. 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.  Portland, OR— November 17, 2020 — Unsolicited Press announces immediate availability of From the Land of Genesis by Stephen J. O'Shea, documentarian and explorer. From the Land of Genesis is literature at its best. Crafted in short story form to achieve a number of vivid slices of life, this collection accurately illustrates the hardships of normal life after living wartime experiences.
O’Shea traveled the globe interviewing veterans and taking special care to authentically portray the veteran experience at home. The result is a literary fiction / narrative nonfiction hybrid, with fictional characters and settings, but references and experiences of war that are drawn explicitly from interviews, transcripts, and source materials. Any one of these stories contributes so much on its own and is unique in its own respects, and yet the overlapping characters and themes flow more like a novel than a short story collection. O’Shea writes on a number of widely varying lifestyles of veterans who all carry the burden of war into their new lives, wherever they have ended up. He demonstrates expert control of conveying emotions, individually and interactively, which plays to his theme of depicting the reality of post-traumatic stress syndrome. To name a few, he emphasizes feelings of alienation, depression, paranoia, confusion, and regret. However, the stories also feature glimpses of hope amidst the despairing truths, making a beautiful literary medium for readers to experience vicariously the extremes of the human condition. Stephen J. O’Shea is a writer, documentarian, and (now) sailor, who tells stories to stay alive. His research for From the Land of Genesis was the catalyst for a sailing expedition around Cape Horn to raise awareness about veteran suicide rates. Having miraculously survived that feat (and transformed that journey into the feature documentary, Hell or High Seas) he's now writing and producing stories through a number of mediums, including literature and film. From the Land of Genesis (978-1-950730-58-2) is available as a paperback ($17.00; 302p.) and ebook, and can be purchased from all major retailers. Ingram Book Group distributes the title to the market. Mr. O'Shea is open to scheduling events, speaking with the press, and getting involved in literary panels. Both publisher and author have active social media presences, and have developed a robust marketing plan. 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.  Readers and reviewers are smitten with Anne Leigh Parrish's latest book. Kirkus Reviews says “these tales are also wonderfully worthwhile, courtesy of an indelible voice that leaves a lasting impression.”
In sixteen short stories and a novella, award-winning author Anne Leigh Parrish explores the magic of life, love, and the soft boundary between fact and fantasy. Here is fiction that lifts off from reality and startles us into recognition. The wife of an artist disappears under mysterious circumstances; a woman has the gift of taking away sorrow; another finds inner strength through writing poetry; and a great-grandmother spends the day sitting on a folding chair in a grocery store parking lot, contemplating the nature of the human heart. Women are the foundation of this collection, and it’s their unique issues that hold sway. Marriages gone bad, violent men, and children who disappoint weave through settings and scenes with fine dramatic tension. Loneliness, often a thing to be avoided at the cost of one’s self-esteem, becomes embraced as a source of strength. Quiet souls make themselves heard, and the timid prevail. The underdog doesn’t always win, and more often than not learns to accept what cannot be changed. Literary fiction at its best, What Nell Dreams is Parrish’s eight book of fiction. MORE ADVANCE PRAISE “Anne Leigh Parrish’s collection, What Nell Dreams, lets readers peer into lives at that precious moment of transition and discovery.” — PAM MCGAFFIN, author of The Leaving Year “Parrish is a master at creating strong and authentic female characters.” — CHRISSI SEPE, author of Iggy Gorgess and Bliss, Bliss, Bliss About Anne Leigh Parrish Anne Leigh Parrish is the author of seven previously published books: Maggie’s Ruse, a novel (Unsolicited Press, 2019); The Amendment, a novel (Unsolicited Press, 2018); Women Within, a novel (Black Rose Writing, 2017); By the Wayside, stories (Unsolicited Press, 2017); What Is Found, What Is Lost, a novel (She Writes Press, 2014); Our Love Could Light The World, stories (She Writes Press, 2013); and All The Roads That Lead From Home, stories (Press 53, 2011). Where to Buy WHAT NELL DREAMS WHAT NELL DREAMS is available directly from the publisher and all major retailers such as Amazon. Readers who prefer to shop at independent bookstores can buy a copy through Indiebound. An ebook is also available through Amazon's Kindle program.  Unsolicited Press announces the long-awaited release of WORKING TITLE, a poetry collection by Chuck Harp. Set to release on November 10, 2020, Working Title investigates a spectrum of emotions: disillusionment, fatigue, anger, frustration, and indifference, and others through a series of poems that honor the Everyman. The speakers of the poems share the same face but not always the same uniform. They are workers from the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. What emerges is a painting illustrating the consequences of spending more time in an office than out in the world. The numbing nine-to-fives. The blinding blue light of computer screens. Working Title is a portrait of the mundane everyday of modern civilization in the western world.
Chuck is a writer of various forms who currently resides in Los Angeles. He published Before I Forget with Black Rose Writing, What Must Go On with Unsolicited Press, and Blooming Insanity with Dostoyevsky Wannabe. 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. WORKING TITLE (978-1-950730-67-4) is available (paperback, ebook) directly from the publisher (www.unsolicitedpress.com) and all major retailers. Ingram Book Group distributes the title to the market.  Adventurous, magical, and often dark, the stories that comprise Feral Boy Meets Girl are about outsiders in their own communities, homes, and even intimate relationships.
Feral Boy Meets Girl blends literary fiction with elements of science fiction, fantasy, and horror to tell stories of outsiders within their communities, their homes, and even their intimate relationships. In “The Death And Life Of Bob,” a collective of textbook sales reps watches in amazement as their marginalized coworker returns from the dead with a new zest for life—but one sees something far darker in his new beginning. In the title story, “Feral Boy Meets Girl,” a young teenager, raised in the wild by a cougar until his adoption by human parents, is on the cusp of full integration into society, but finds that “civilization” is nothing of the sort. In “Static,” an experimental wormhole leads to a father receiving cell phone calls from his son twenty years in the future—and what he learns about himself isn’t pretty. “Minutes of the Pine Valley Residents’ Board” features a depressed, cynical secretary observing his condo board becoming a court of star chamber, but as a non-voting member he can only witness and record, rather than intervene. In “The Sound of His Voice,” a mother goes to near-superhuman lengths to care for her three-year-old son who has been infected by a zombie virus. And “Do Not Break The Heart Of Charles Nelson Bereiter” offers instructions on how to date an emotionally-broken man literally haunted by a spirit from his past. William Jablonsky is originally from Rock Falls, Illinois, and earned an MFA in fiction writing from Bowling Green State University. He is the author of two previous books: The Indestructible Man: Stories (Livingston Press, 2005) and The Clockwork Man (Medallion, 2010). His short fiction has appeared frequently national magazines and journals, including Asimov’s, Shimmer, The Florida Review, Phoebe, and many others. He teaches fiction writing and interdisciplinary humanities at Loras College, and lives in eastern Iowa with his wife and son.  Portland, Oregon— October 20, 2020 — Unsolicited Press announced immediate availability of Dunbar’s Folly and Other Stories by Matthew Duffus. Dunbar’s Folly and Other Stories paints the stories of Americans from sisters vacationing in Southern California to the kudzu-covered fields of Mississippi. Each story, built on luxurious landscapes, hones in on the turmoil of living in 21st Century America. Readers come face-to-face with the struggles of living off-grid and fighting for artistic credibility in a society that refuses to let freedom ring...all in favor of commerce.
Advance Praise for Dunbar’s Folly and Other Stories "Matthew Duffus’ debut collection is a powerful hymn to families—chosen ones, second ones, makeshift ones, loving and fierce, troubled and turbulent. The stories in Dunbar’s Folly unfold like stretches of gentle country road, tracking the signposts of relationships with an unassumingly clear-eyed lucidity. Each story navigates its dips and turns so smoothly that its ultimate destination—a sharp, illuminating crossroads—feels revelatory, every time."--Suzanne Rivecca, author of Death Is Not an Option "Matthew Duffus is a superb writer, one whose stories I found instantly engaging. In part, that's because he has no time for the trivial. He's exploring the mysteries of the human heart and doing so with both grace and wonder. This is a deeply moving collection, one that I will return to many times."--Steve Yarbrough, author of The Unmade World In an easy and lucid style, Dunbar’s Folly immerses the reader in the conundrums of life—wayward children, divorce, retirement, suicide, and unfettered pride. These insightful stories will absorb you with honest compelling characters. Matthew Duffus has most assuredly written a classic within the pages of this flawless collection.--Russell Helms, author of Fade Matthew Duffus is the author of the novel Swapping Purples for Yellows and the poetry chapbook Problems of the Soul and Otherwise. He lives in North Carolina and can be found online at matthewduffus.com and on twitter @DuffusMatthew. Dunbar’s Folly and Other Stories by Matthew Duffus Availability Dunbar's Folly and Other Stories is available on October 20, 2020 as a paperback (978-1-950730-54-4) and e-book. The book is brought to the trade by Ingram. The publisher and author have active publicity and marketing campaigns in place. 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. |
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