 PORTLAND, OR -- JULY 11, 2023: A rust belt city in decline retains the solace of romance, which often proves to be an empty promise or even a curse. With a wry perspective and unflappable determination, Curt embodies all the town’s ills, including his own problems with drinking, work, and relationships, as he tries to save himself and rescue his friends in his own unconventional and unlawful ways. In The Bridge on Beer River, a novel-in-stories set in Reagan-era Binghamton, New York, characters scramble for subsistence while hoping for love and a better life.
PRAISE FOR TERRY TIERNEY The characters in The Bridge on Beer River drink too much, fight for survival, and fight one another while clinging to friendship and humor. Terry Tierney plies the blue-collar desperation and heroism of William Kennedy with fast-moving prose reminiscent of Raymond Chandler! Lee Kravetz, author of The Last Confessions of Sylvia P. As Curt, an ex-Marine living in Reagan-era Binghamton, NY, struggles to find his way, he crosses paths with colorful down-and-outers, sharp women, and hardened characters. With his heart in the past but his eye on the future, he tries to improve himself by learning computer technology at the dairy which eventually lays him off. Down on his luck again, and short on cash, he makes do by working for a local bookie in between beers at his favorite bar. Others offer money, advice, and the use of a battered set of wheels, but only Curt can help himself. Then, a chance to flee the industrial decay of upstate New York comes his way, but will he take it? Written in tight, unsentimental prose, with wry, crackling dialog, The Bridge on Beer River reminds us of the value of friendship, believing in yourself, and the lure of that one big gamble that could really pay off. Anne Leigh Parrish, author of An Open Door Reading Terry Tierney’s novel-in-stories, The Bridge on Beer River, is to remember what I love about fiction. Tierney does, in fact, tell tales, but he tells them with a writerly voice that can only result in that most precious outcome: honest deception. He builds a bridge between perspectives, between moments and crises, between characters, between writer and reader, and continuously—relentlessly—reminds me that a bridge is very rarely crossed just once. And there is, especially in the upstate New York of this novel, always a toll to be paid. Tierney creates a nearly perfect antihero in Curt, the lager-swilling, B-list Romeo who channels the best bits of Bukowski and James Dean. Likewise, the author creates a reality so convincing and inescapable that as the novel progresses, I stupidly hope the world is not ending. I begin to root for more breakups, more hangovers, more derelict dreams. And, as Tierney so masterfully uses as a visual metaphor, more African violets. Tierney has written a human novel, free of self-importance and pretense. This is a gripping book by one of the finer fiction writers I know. Andy Smart, author of The More You Hate Me ABOUT THE AUTHOR Terry Tierney was raised in Minneapolis and eventually migrated to the San Francisco Bay Area. After serving in the Seabees, he completed his BA and MA at Binghamton University, and earned a PhD in Victorian Literature at Emory University. He taught college composition and creative writing, and he survived several Silicon Valley startups as a software engineer. He lives in Oakland with his wife, a Librarian from the University of California, their two Persian cats, and their enthusiastic Golden Retriever. He is the author of a poetry collection, The Poet’s Garage, and the novel Lucky Ride, both published by Unsolicited Press. His work has appeared in many literary journals and anthologies. More can be learned at http://terrytierney.com. The Bridge on Beer River is available on July 11, 2023 , as a paperback (374p.; 978-1-956692-63-1) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities.  
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Adam Gibbs is an author and poet from Grove City, Ohio. His writing has appeared in Black Bough Poetry, The Mark Literary Review and Second Chance Lit. His novella, Dumb Luck, is available from Unsolicited Press. He lives with his wife Lindsay and their two children, Clara and Isaac. ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is 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. Existentialism at the Wheel is available on June 20, 2023 , as a paperback (70p.; 978-1-956692-70-9) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. Powerhouse Essayist Sarah K. Lenz Publishes "What Will Outlast Me?" with Unsolicited Press6/13/2023
 In her debut essay collection, Sarah K. Lenz explores the question: How do you live knowing you’re going to die? Lenz touches on moments when death brushed near, including a house fire, a car accident, and a police shooting, but in each case, the violent and tragic are interwoven with curiosity and insight.
With clarity and grace, Lenz takes on a wide-ranging of topics. From the discovery of a post-mortem photograph of her great-uncles who were killed by lightning to the quotidian pancaking-making days with her preschooler son while the COVID-19 pandemic raged, Lenz confronts the complexities of being sandwiched between aging parents and a young child, while also navigating her own thyroid cancer diagnosis. In the midst of this, Lenz finds herself comforting her father, who’s fixated with where to spread his ashes in “Driving the Section Line, ” and imagining all the ways her baby can die when suffering postpartum depression in “So Many Ways.” Though the subjects are serious, often life or death matters, Lenz tells these stories with warmth and wisdom. The narrative is buoyed by breathtaking honesty—and a bit of the grotesque–like a misguided attempt to cook a whole hog’s head from her beloved, late grandmother’s recipe. This book is a moving, heartfelt meditation on how to face mortality, how to grieve, but most importantly, how to awaken to the ephemeral beauty of the world. This book is a powerful reminder that what will outlast us is those we love. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sarah K. Lenz grew up in central Nebraska. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in Colorado Review, New Letters, Triquarterly, The Fourth River, Pen Dust Radio and elsewhere. Her work has been named Notable in Best American Essays three times. She writes the newsletter Spirit: Notes for the Creative Contemplative. Sarah is an Assistant Professor of English at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas where she lives with her husband, son, and twelve typewriters. Find her online at sarahklenz.com. ABOUT THE PRESS Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is 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. "What Will Outlast Me?" is available on June 13, 2023 , as a paperback (252p.; 978-1-956692-53-2) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Virginia Woolf because I know she appreciated fine dining, and I’d want to show off a little because I love cooking. She’d get behind some good charcuterie. If you’ve read my essay “Making Headcheese,” then you know I can make Hog’s Headcheese from a whole pig’s head. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? As a memoirist, it’s difficult when you write about real people in your life, and they react badly to it. It’s hard to tell what might upset someone. For What Will Outlast Me?, my family was supportive. I had my mom and my mother-in-law vet the chapters about them before the book went to publication. My mom suggested changes that made the essay stronger, and portrayed her experience with having cancer more accurately. I changed some names real people to protect their privacy. What books are on your nightstand? Under My Bed by Jody Keisner, Smile: the story of face by Sarah Ruhl, Ordinary Insanity: fear and the silent crisis of motherhood in America by Sarah Menkedick, and Plums for Months by Zaji Cox. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I love the em dash because it mirrors my thought process. Often a rogue idea appears–and demands to be inserted into my original train of thought–before I can finish the sentence. (I hate semicolons; they’re just a pretension; they try too hard to string together ideas; they want too much attention.) What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Augustine’s Confessions. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? B5-Size Composition Notebooks made by Zen Art (I use them for my morning pages journal, my drafts in progress, and my Bullet Journal). Lamy Safari fountain pens filled with Noodler’s Black, Bulletproof ink. Wide-brimmed straw sun hats I wear when I go on “thinking-walks” to take writing breaks,. Diet Coke, but when drinking too much Diet Coke gives me an IBS flare, then I have to switch to unsweetened iced tea. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Exhausts, but in a good way. I like to balance the headiness of writing with physical activities. After several hours of writing, I’ll clear my head with swimming laps or long walks. I spent a lot of time going on walks on the trash-strewn public beach that I wrote about in the essay, “From Birth to Bone,” when I was finishing up the last essays in What Will Outlast Me? What is your writing Kryptonite? Grading Freshman Composition Papers. I really enjoy being an English professor, and I admire and respect my students. My students often write about interesting things, but there’s no way around it, grading a batch of 100+ research essays takes a lot of energy. I can’t write when I’m in paper-grading mode. A grading cycle takes about 4 or 5 days, 4 times a semester, so there are in-between times when I can write more. I’m incredibly lucky to be tenured on a 9-month teaching contract, so I get a lot of writing done in the summers, especially when the heat index in south Texas is 100-110 degrees in July and I never want to go outside. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Reader’s block for me looks like promiscuous reading. I’ll have dozens of one-night stands in a row, in which I sit down and read for an hour–get 50 or 75 pages in–and then completely lose interest (you know, and sneak out before they wake up and want breakfast.) I have phases of being totally unable to commit to reading a whole book. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Yes, but a pretty sophisticated level of emotional intelligence is necessary. Just the other day I was at a pool party with a good mix of parents all with kids and a friend asked: Do you think adults are capable of feeling emotions as strongly as kids do? He’d noticed his daughter, who’s 6-years-old, like my son, has ghastly emotional outbursts and concluded he’d never felt that strongly as an adult. I argued that we all feel the same intensity of emotion (and how would you even measure objectively?). It’s just that as adults we have experience and logic and a set of well-honed coping mechanisms so it doesn’t look like the emotions are as strong from the outside, even though inside they are. I think that’s the thing that writing does better than any other art form: it gets into the character’s inner emotional life, and when you're a memoirist, that character is a past version of yourself. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? Joan Didion, David Foster Wallace What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? Willa Cather’s Song of the Lark. It’s just as good as O Pioneers!, but even better than My Antonia, but it never gets any love. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? Two. One’s a drawer novel I started during the pandemic. I wrote it in long-hand in B5 notebooks with cats on the covers, and I have no inclination to ever finish it. The other unfinished book is a memoir manuscript I’m working on now, which is about how diet culture, and generational trauma related to eating disorders, screwed up many of my relationships. What does literary success look like to you? To keep writing the best books I can and to have readers who connect with my work. What did you edit out of this book? At one point, I cut half this book manuscript. The essays that got cut just weren’t working thematically. They were mostly about sex (the story of how I lost my virginity/dating someone with different turn-ons, stuff like that.) In this case, sex did not sell. Lol. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? My day job is teaching writing as a college professor, and I love teaching. It allows me to follow my curiosity and practice the writing process, which makes my writing better. Currently, I’m designing a literature course devoted to the contemporary essay and the reading list is all my favorite modern nonfiction writers: Eula Biss, Amy Fusselman, Ross Gay, Maggie Nelson. Upcoming Promotions to Celebrate the Launch of Terry Tierney's Book THE BRIDGE ON BEER RIVER6/1/2023
Unsolicited Press has had the pleasure of working with Bay Area author Terry Tierney for years, first with his poetry collection The Poet's Garage, then his novel Lucky Ride, and now with his latest novel-in-stories, The Bridge on Beer River.
In The Bridge on Beer River, set in Reagan-era Binghamton, New York, a rust belt city in decline retains the solace of romance, which often proves to be an empty promise or even a curse. With a wry perspective and unflappable determination, Curt embodies all the town’s ills, including his own problems with drinking, work, and relationships, as he tries to save himself and rescue his friends in his own unconventional and unlawful ways. To celebrate the launch of Terry's latest book (out on JULY 11, 2023), we are offering a few cool promotions. EBOOK PROMO For the first 100 copies sold on our website we will give out free ebook copies of Terry's first novel, LUCKY RIDE. Also, for those who want to buy a copy of BRIDGE off-site, then you can find ebook copies of LUCKY RIDE at a discount on your favorite ebook retailer's website (just $2.99). EVERYTHING TERRY TIERNEY BUNDLE Maybe you are itching to read everything we've published by Terry....because after all, he's a stellar writer and all-around good person. We made it so you can get all of his titles from us for a steal. Grab the book bundle! It's $40 plus shipping and you get three paperbacks. GIVEAWAY Any reader who posts a picture of them with their copy of BRIDGE on Instagram or Twitter will be entered to win a free book of their choice. Don't forget to tag @unsolicitedp in the picture. NIGHT HAG by AMY BASKIN
 PORTLAND, OR; May 16, 2023--The novel bears re-reading well, for the twists and turns of the plot as well as the details even a careful reader might miss on a first pass. In a wink to the world of comic books and other forms of serial storytelling, the novel also leaves space for at least one alternative reading that feels like a juicy fan theory.--Jennifer Vega, POPMATTERS
After suffering a tragic loss, eccentric comic book writer and artist Kellan Savoy entered a year-long seclusion, during which he produced Window Eyes, a twenty-two-and-a-half issue series about a man who tries to create a golem to replace his dead lover. Kellan would show this work to only one person, his best friend Thomas Levi, before disappearing with it. At the behest of Kellan’s editor, Thomas has worked to produce, from his memories, an approximation of the series so that it will not be lost to the world forever. The result: an annotated collection of issue summaries that simultaneously attempts to preserve what might be the final work of an exceptional artist while providing uncommon access to that artist’s life and mind. About Philip Jason Philip Jason’s stories can be found in magazines such as Prairie Schooner, The Pinch, Mid-American Review, Ninth Letter, and J Journal; his poetry in Spillway, Lake Effect, Canary and Summerset Review. He is a recipient of the Henfield Prize in Fiction. His first collection of poetry, I Don’t Understand Why It’s Crazy to Hear the Beautiful Songs of Nonexistent Birds, is forthcoming from Fernwood Press. For more information, visit philipjason.com. About Unsolicited Press Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is 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. WINDOW EYES is available on May 16, 2023, as a paperback (978-1-956692-64-8) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities.  PORTLAND, OR; May 9, 2023--Equally funny and foul, heartwarming and heartbreaking, "Release Me" is a coming-of-age story about a young man who understands that home is where the heart is, but is stuck pondering the question, “Where is my heart?”
22-year-old Jacob Constantine has everything he needs—an Ivy League education, a wealthy family, and the lucrative offer to take over his father’s real estate empire. The only problem is he doesn’t know what he wants, other than his ex-girlfriend Deirdre back. When she attempts to rekindle their relationship one week before his departure to Germany—where he accepted a one-year job to put off the inevitable career with his father—the presence of the past begins to overshadow his temporary escape from the future. With the help of a beer-guzzling, flatulent punk rocker named Stinki, and Julia, the beautiful and spirited intern at the American Studies department where he works, Jake tries to navigate the present tense in Germany. But as he speeds toward his unwanted future, no amount of sex, drugs, or punk rock can keep the dark secrets from the past from being stirred up in the wake of Deirdre’s reappearance. About Tim DeMarco Tim DeMarco is a teacher, translator, writer, and wannabe musician. Release Me is his first novel. He currently lives at the Jersey Shore, where—despite having such a big mouth—he constantly bites off more than he can chew. Visit him at timdemarco.com About Unsolicited Press Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is 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. RELEASE ME is available on May 9, 2023, as a paperback (978-1-956692-69-3) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities.  PORTLAND, OR; April 11, 2022 --
NIGHT HAG (Unsolicited Press, April 2023) speaks of femininity through the eternal voice of Lilith, the first woman. NIGHT HAG is an exploration of yin strength and autonomy of body, heart, and mind. NIGHT HAG invites readers to consider distinctions between selfishness and self-care. PRAISE FOR AMY BASKIN Amy Baskin’s mythologically-infused Night Hag set my loins on fire with empowered carnal eroticism and righteous anger personified through the voice of Lilith, the first woman who refused to succumb to the wills of man. “God…made Adam a father/of a child he had no say in/ then god told Adam/have your way with her/this unasked-for creation/not to raise her but/infuse her with/more life/in my image/time and time again.” In light of the overturning of Roe, these poems harken a source power pulling from a deep well of womb rage, joined with a primal interrogation of the generational traumas and violence against the female body— Lilith, juxtaposed with women today, denying these forced-upon seeds, this oppression. “When I’m naked here in public, you can’t beat me…You emerged from my womb. I am your crucible…I sit before you, legs spread, masked, reminding you of your humble beginnings.” --Kai Coggin, author of Mining for Stardust, Incandescent, and Wingspan. Host of Wednesday Night Poetry. Dark and audacious. Outraged and outrageous. Fearless and iconoclastic. If Lilith were given a microphone and the spotlight, this is the voice we’d expect. And in her collection Night Hag, Amy Baskin delivers exactly that. In music-rich lyric poems, Baskin turns this pre-Eve, primordial woman loose so she can adamantly proclaim that “to love does not mean / to obey.” Speaking her mind in both Edenic and contemporary times, this ageless proto-female strives to better our fraught and ineffably challenging world by leading us with feminist wisdom, with “the compass of the womb.” —Paulann Petersen Oregon Poet Laureate Emerita In Amy Baskin’s Night Hag, the poet examines, in the most beautiful way, the mythological Lilith. These poems are a perfect elixir for surviving in these times. The images will indeed “grab you by the scruff of the neck”. There could not be a more perfect time for this book, as we continue the long and worthwhile battle for women’s rights. In this journey of pages, you will find minerals and molecules, caves, burnt rubber on the driveway, a supernova, bicycles and cosmos and a teapot still on the table. This book will feed the soul and remind us, in exquisite language, that our body is “a temple laden with offerings”. —Connie Post Author of Floodwater (winner of the Lyrebird Award) and Prime Meridian (International Book Awards Finalist) Amy Baskin writes with intensity and passion. Her poems reach into your chest, squeezing until you feel like you can’t breathe. In Night Hag, she takes the mythic figure of Lilith and views the character in modern settings—a timely expression of outrage at the treatment of women in a society that claims to care but often doesn’t. Baskin does this masterfully without condescension, exploring both beauty and dread in the world today, all through the eyes of someone filled with past trauma and, yet, a kind of love for that same world. This is a wonderful book, both startling and refreshing. —Ace Boggess Author of Escape Envy and I Have Lost the Art of Dreaming It So In her astonishing collection Night Hag, Amy Baskin turns the mythical Lilith into an unmanageable force who refuses to be tamed. In a strong, self-possessed voice, Baskin’s first woman unabashedly tells her husband Adam, to love does not mean to obey./ You never understood this. She proclaims her right to control her own body: when I feel his child kick within me, I don’t want it. She describes herself to a new lover: you think I’m a known quantity/you couldn’t be more wrong. With dazzling leaps of imagination, Baskin creates a character who couldn’t be more right for this historical moment. Whether exploring the world beyond the garden, linking arms with mothers at a protest, or bumping into Adam and Eve in grocery aisles, this reincarnated Lilith is a playful, sensual, outspoken woman who, in poem after poem, challenges the mind as she engages the heart. And isn’t this what genuine poetry strives to do? Cheers to Baskin and Night Hag for this stunning collection. This is, I hope, the first of many more to come. ––Carolyn Martin, Ph.D. Poetry editor of Kosmos Quarterly: journal for global transformation. About Amy Baskin Amy Baskin is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, an Oregon Literary Arts fellow, and an Oregon Poetry Association prize winner. Her first collection, NIGHT HAG (Unsolicited Press, 2023), is about Lilith, the mythic “first woman,” and will be available in April. Amy works with students and faculty in the Departments of English and History at Lewis & Clark and helps run the annual Fir Acres Summer Writing Workshop. Her chapbook HYSTERICAL CAKE was published by Dancing Girl Press in 2022. Her work has been featured in journals including Cultural Daily, Timberline Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Friends Journal, and SWWIM. About Unsolicited Press Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is 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. NIGHT HAG is available on April 11, 2022, as a paperback (114 p.;978-1-956692-56-3) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. Washington Poet Anne Leigh Parrish Releases Second Poetry Collection: IF THE SKY WON'T HAVE ME4/4/2023
 PORTLAND, OR; April 4, 2022 -- The poems in If The Sky Won’t Have Me weave a brilliant tapestry of the human condition, focusing on nature, the female experience, family drama, aging, politics, and regret. Images of water feature strongly, as do rebirth and regeneration, both physical and spiritual. A perfect sequel to the author’s debut collection, the moon won’t be dared, these poems expand and deepen our understanding of what it means to be alive in a complex world.
Praise for Anne Leigh Parrish Award-winning novelist Anne Leigh Parrish doubles down on her provocative debut poetry collection the moon won’t be dared with a new book of resonant and deeply emotional poems. If The Sky Won’t Have Me echoes with themes of love gained and lost, including relationships with family and the environment, through every stage of a woman’s growth. Recurring images of nature and water link the poems, culminating with the title poem where the poet craves rebirth in water: “If the sky won’t have me, ... / I’ll stay just until clouds gather, / Rain falls again & I release myself once more.” If The Sky Won’t Have Me is filled with ringing poetic images that often read like personal parables and leave the reader wanting more. – Terry Tierney, author of The Poet’s Garage Satisfying. Brilliant. Necessary. A beautiful and masterfully written collection of poems whose words evoke a sense of movement that beckons us back to the page and to the places we belong. – Loic Ekinga, author of How to Wake a Butterfly About Anne Leigh Parrish Anne Leigh Parrish is the author of eleven previously published books, most recently an open door, a novel, October 2022, and the moon won’t be dared, poems, October 2021. She lives in the South Sound Region of Washington State and has joyously ventured into the art of photography. find her online at anneleighparrish.com. About Unsolicited Press Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is 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. IF THE SKY WON'T HAVE ME is available on April 4, 2022, as a paperback (164 p.; 978-1-956692-52-5) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities.  March is Women's History Month and we don't like to profit off any group of people so we thought the best way to support the woman we've published is to donate money from the sales of their books. This March, when you buy a book that's authored by a woman through our website, we will donate $2 to the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women. "Organized in 1996 by three founding Native women, Peggy Bird (Kewa), Darlene Correa (Laguna Pueblo) and Genne James (Navajo), the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women (CSVANW) was created to provide support to other Native advocates working in domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking and sex trafficking in New Mexico’s tribal communities. Their single goal: to eliminate violence against Native women and children." We want to help bring attention to groups of women that are largely disadvantaged and ignored. Native women are regularly ignored by our government and our culture. So celebrate the Native women in our past and our future. Order a book today.  “Motel Stories” takes an empathetic deep dive into the eccentricities and troubled lives of guests at the fictional Sunset Inn, a seedy motel on Hollywood Boulevard. Twenty linked tales include a man who dances with dolls, an immigrant couple from opposing sides of a civil war celebrating their honeymoon, a disgraced politician in hiding, an addict mother facing a fateful reunion with her long-lost brother.
Four related stories complete the collection: a teenage boy flees his hometown to escape scandal and persecution, a Filipina internet bride struggles for autonomy in suburban America, a female impersonator supersedes her once-glamorous mentor, a gay gallery owner confronts his own delinquent past when his troubled teenage nephew visits. About William Torphy William Torphy has received a number of prizes and honors for his short fiction. His short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including Bryant Literary Review, The Fictional Café, Sun Star Quarterly, Chelsea Station, Arlington Literary Journal, and Adelaide Literary Magazine. His opinion pieces have been featured in Solstice Literary, OpEdge and Vox Populi. Ithuriel’s Spear Press has published a collection of his poetry, “Love Never Always” as well as “Snakebite,” young adult fiction; and “A Brush With History,” a biography of California activist artist Eda Kavin. He has recently moved to Wisconsin from the San Francisco Bay area where he served as an exhibition curator for many years. www.williamtorphy.com About Unsolicited Press Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is 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. Motel Stories is available on March 14, 2023 as a paperback (340 p.; 978-1-956692-61-7), e-book, and audiobook (forthcoming). Retailers and libraries can order copies through Ingram. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Colm Toibin. I’m part Irish and have an affinity to that land as well as admiration for the broadly varied subjects and both male and female characters Toibin has taken on so sensitively. “The Master” and “Brooklyn” I suppose I’d dish up a cassoulet, the French version of Irish stew. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? The blank page. Putting pen to paper. What books are on your nightstand? I just finished Colson Whitehead’s “Harlem Shuffle,” a serious period romp. Waiting for me to pick up is a fairly eclectic selection of already should-have-read modern and contemporary classics: Llosa’s “Feast of the Goat,” TC Boyle’s “Budding Prospects,” Zadie Smith’s “White Teeth.” But I may take a vacation break with Daniel Silva’s thriller, “The Cellist,” in which the Mossad takes on the Russian financial Mafia. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The period. It means I’ve made progress and can move on to a new sentence. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? “Pride & Prejudice.” As a teenager, I was convinced it would bore me. I was too immature to understand its subtle critique of social mores that is still relevant to this day. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My favorite pens that run out of ink with no warning. They provide me a reminder of how hard I’ve worked. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? “Write with Intention and Attention.” I also like what Louis L’Amour said, appropriate for a larger bathroom mirror: “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” Does writing energize or exhaust you? The act of writing energizes me greatly, though when I stop, I’m fairly exhausted, and find it difficult for an hour or so to reintegrate into “real life”. What are common traps for aspiring writers? Perfectionism and thinking you need an “important idea” to begin. What is your writing Kryptonite? An idea, phrase, news item, piece of gossip that grabs me by the balls. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? The closest I’ve come is fearing that I might have writer’s block rather than understanding that I may require a reasonable amount of time to collect myself and begin again. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Yes, but perhaps a technical writer for plumbing fixtures. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? My writing group has supported me through numerous drafts and gaffs. They have always been both constructively critical and extraordinarily supportive. 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 primarily write short stories, many of which are independent of others, though my collection “Motel Stories” contains twenty linked stories that all take place at a seedy motel on Hollywood Boulevard. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? “Love Never Always” was my first publication, a collection of poetry that gave me the confidence to let my writing flow with fewer doubts. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? A really good, large desk that has room for all my notes on scraps I make to write. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? Maybe Somerset Maugham. “Of Human Bondage” is ridiculously dramatic, and possesses an overly complicated plot and a disappointing ending, but I learned a lot about leaning toward concision and simplicity after wading through a couple of his novels. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? When I called a bully for what he was on the playground. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? I’m not sure what constitutes an under-appreciated novel, but there are so many fine ones that don’t get the attention they deserve. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? Probably the coyote, the Native American trickster. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? The truth from my point of view as to how they have revealed themselves to me. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? Two unfinished novels and perhaps 60 unpublished short stories. What does literary success look like to you? Getting published more often and receiving an occasional personal message of praise from an editor. What’s the best way to market your books? A good email list personalizes your approach with built-in support. Getting reviewed and accepted into strategic bookstores along with readings gets the word out. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? Eliminating the blind spots and POV of a male, albeit a “sensitive” one. What did you edit out of this book?” A very long story featuring four complex female characters. I’ll save it for a future publication I have in mind. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I’ve been a visual art curator for many years, a profession that I love intensely.  We are fast approaching Read an Ebook Week, a week that encourages readers to pick up the digital device of their choice and download a new book to read.
We're excited to announce that our books will be available as part of a promotion on Smashwords to celebrate Read an Ebook Week 2023! This is a chance to get our books, along with books from many other great authors, at a discount so you can get right to reading. You will find the promo here starting on March 5, so save the link: https://www.smashwords.com/ebookweek If you wouldn't mind taking part in promoting this celebration of Ebooks and reading, please feel free to share this promo with your friends and family. Happy reading!  2022 is gone. But you know what, it was wacky and wild and full of some amazing times. We published a heck of a lit of books by some of the most promising authors in the country (seriously). While we've never published a Best of list before (we really don't like our books to compete with one another...because they are ALL exceptional), we thought maybe 2022 is the year to start. Without further nonsense from us, here are the top sixteen bestselling books from our 2022 publication list (they are not listed in order based on highest sales).
 "Books Inc. Berkeley proudly welcomes local author Paul Justison for a reading from his debut novel Lost and Found in the 60s, a illuminating vision of San Francisco in the era of flower children, free love, and groovy music!"
Holden Caulfield returns as Mark Stenrud to bring the psychedelic era vividly to life. Alienated from a toxic mother, and in constant conflict at his conservative high school because of his radical politics, Mark Stenrud escapes to Haight-Ashbury, where he takes a job in the post office and settles into a carefree existence in the psychedelic center of the universe. LSD chemists notice his organizational skills and calmness in the face of danger and recruit him to join their enterprise. He accepts and has free time for romance, adventures, and street justice. After months of success, he loses his touch, leading to narrow escapes, bad decisions, and his own downfall. Along the way, he learns about loss, forgiveness, and the meaning of self-respect. "This novel is excruciatingly accurate and totally outrageous. Justison has captured the extravagance of the time: the interplay of sexual liberation, psychedelic experiences and coming of age that made the community so intense and inviting. Was drug use so extensive and casual? You bet. Was casual sexual connecting so extensive and easy? Oh my, yes. The 60s, including its dark, scary, lonely, confused reality is all here, as well as the ecstasy, the kindness, and the sharing. If you weren't there, this is as close as you're going to get to knowing what you missed. The stories, the people, the vision- enjoy the trip." - James Fadiman, microdose researcher and author, The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide: Safe, Therapeutic and Sacred Journeys "This lively and engaging novel chronicles the adventures of a high school drop-out who leaves Arizona for the Haight Ashbury in the 1960's where the credo was "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out." The narrator, a bright, observant young man, quickly becomes part of Hippie culture of free love, tripping on marijuana and LSD, Be-Ins, Viet Nam War protests, and anti-draft demonstrations, which is captured in nuanced and textured detail. Central to this novel is the protagonist's deep respect for women as friends and lovers who are his equals in their shared explorations as well as existential lessons learned. For those who were there, this novel will bring it all back, for those who weren't, this novel is a vivid portrait of of the 60's." - Wendy Martin, Professor of American Literature and American Studies, and Founder/Editor of Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal Paul Justison dropped out of high school in 1966 and fled to Haight-Ashbury, spending most of the next two years there and in Marin County engaging in all the pleasures and follies that magical time had to offer. After the sixties ended, he went to college, started a career, and raised a family. He has been published in The Rumpus, The Gambler Mag, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Fiction on the Web. Lost and Found in the 60s is his first novel. Event Information: Tuesday, January 24, 2023 - 7:00pm Books Inc. 1491 Shattuck Ave Berkeley, CA 94709 If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? I don’t know if he eats meat or not, but I’d love to have a steak with Cormac McCarthy. I’m not sure what route I’d go with it. Sometimes I do my secret marinade. On other occasions, I’ll do a red wine and mushroom demi-glace. I could also just do a pan sear with garlic, butter, and rosemary. So many options, but I’d definitely do asparagus and mashed potatoes as a side. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Well, I wouldn’t call this a crush any longer because I’m now an adult male, but I definitely had a crush on Wednesday Addams as a kid. I was in the sixth grade when the 1991 film came out, and I fell in love with Christina Ricci’s portrayal. Jenna Ortega does an incredible job in the new series. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Both, actually. When I’m in the flow, like when I’m really feeling the poem almost as if I’m channeling it from a source outside of myself, I feel incredibly energized. Time stops. This sounds weird to say, but I feel this sense of unity and oneness, a true euphoria. When I exit that space, I feel depleted. I have to decompress a little. I can’t talk to anyone because socializing feels so strange, like another language. I need a drink and several minutes just to feel like I can be a person in the world again. What is your writing Kryptonite? Oddly enough, teaching poetry. I love when I get to teach poetry along with the usual English comp courses, but I find that giving feedback on poems taps into the same energy that I use for my own work. Whenever I teach poetry, like I did in spring 2022, I end up not writing as much. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Interesting concept. I wasn’t aware this actually existed until the interview. Anytime my English 101 students turn in essays. Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice but to read them and give them feedback. They’re trying. They’re mostly good people, but some of their essays…yikes. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? I feel like it puts more pressure on the process. I’ve been submitting my work to literary journals since I finished graduate school (2010), and while I had several published, it wasn’t really until the first book came out that I started thinking every poem had to be “publishable.” I got in my head for a while. I overthought everything. Is this good? Will someone publish this? In the past, I wrote poems that I knew were throwaways, but I enjoyed writing them. It took me a while to be able to get back to writing for fun and not thinking each poem needed to be great. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? Poets as a whole haha. I was really into sports growing up, and I had this very typical, Midwestern belief that poetry was “girl stuff.” I loved reading, but I was strictly into fiction and nonfiction. I hated poetry units in school and didn’t take them seriously. It wasn’t until high school that I started reading and writing poetry. I saw one of my friends writing in the high school library. I asked him what it was, and he told me, “Poetry.” I was surprised. I was like, “What the fuck are you writing poetry for? That’s lame.” He said, “No, it’s actually really therapeutic. I can process my thoughts and experiences and feel better about my life.” So, I started writing poetry to deal with my teenage angst, but I didn’t really know what I was doing. In college, I took a Brit Lit class and encountered the Romantic poets again. I fell in love with John Keats. I learned more about form and technique. I started devouring all the poets I could. So that’s the long answer. I guess the short answer is John Keats. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? In high school, I was kind of an asshole to my parents. I just thought I was smarter than them. They were conservative, very practical Christian/Catholics who both came from agricultural backgrounds, and I was weirdly this liberal, creative atheist who just viewed them as backwoods Kansans. I don’t think that anymore. I would do a lot of things just to piss them off, like becoming a Kansas Jayhawks fan instead of cheering for K-State, or deciding to become a vegetarian for a while not for any ethical or environmental reason but just because it was a stab at my dad, who had been a cattle rancher. One Saturday night, I was supposed to hang out with my friends. We were at my sister’s basketball tournament in Kansas City, and my dad decided he wanted to stay to watch the next teams play because some of my sister’s friends were on those teams. I was upset, so on the way home, I made a cutting remark about him not having any friends when he was young. He’s ordinarily a pretty calm guy, and this is very uncharacteristic for him, but he pulled the car over and came at me like he was going to beat the shit out of me. My mom intervened, and we didn’t come to blows. That was when I realized that language has power. I think I always knew it, but that was the moment where I saw language’s power coming at me in the form of a fist. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? Definitely a raven or a crow. Or a plague doctor. They’re all kind of similar. I remember my first email handle was oldcrowsmiles. I chose that in high school. My parents thought I was sneaking around drinking alcohol because of Old Crow bourbon. I just liked crows. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? I have 4-5 manuscripts that are actually ready to go. I need to revisit them. Many of them were written while I was in graduate school or shortly thereafter. I was quite prolific then, but when I look back on material from 10-15 years ago, I feel like I’m such a different writer now. While I may eventually try to publish those old manuscripts, I’d like to put together a new one of the stuff I’ve written the last couple years. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I don’t currently write for work as teaching pays the bills. Well, I do work as the lead writer for Bandbox vinyl record club, so I guess I can’t say that I don’t write for work. But to answer the question, I’d be a chef. I love cooking. I would love to be like Anthony Bourdain, cooking and writing.  To Daughter a Devil explores women in horror and the horror in being woman. Each poem puts a magnifying glass to the female body and uses the most beautiful and the most terrifying parts to paint a picture of growing up and learning to live with — and possibly love — the evil that lives inside of us.
About Megan Mary Moore Megan Mary Moore holds an MFA in poetry from Miami University. She is the author of Dwellers (Unsolicited Press, 2019) and her work has appeared in Rattle, Grist, and Contemporary Verse 2. She lives in Cincinnati where she frequently dresses like a fairy princess, watches too many horror movies, and writes poems about things that scare her. 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. To Daughter a Devil is available on January 3, 2023 as a paperback (96 p.; 978-1-956692-51-8), e-book, and audiobook (forthcoming). Retailers and libraries can order copies through Ingram.  In his debut poetry collection, Rhys Daly urges the reader to confront discomfort and embrace the things we fear to see what may be beyond them. Shedding asks what parts of ourselves are truly ourselves, and what parts are carefully constructed to defend us against external and internal pressures. It tells a story of someone breaking open his rigidly constructed mindset, examining a home that’s suddenly begun to feel foreign, revisiting memories he has tried desperately to forget, and discovering what they can teach about trauma and healing.
Through conversational free verse and visceral surrealist imagery, Shedding invites you on a journey of deconstruction and reconstruction of self, grudges, the reliability of memory, and what we learn when we face the things we’ve left behind. About Rhys Daly Rhys Daly is a queer Asian-American Seattle area writer and actor who wishes he lived even closer to the ocean. His work often explores discomfort, uncertainty, identity, acceptance, and the wonder in the mundane. When he’s not hunched over a coffee table furiously memorizing lines or scribbling up poems, he can be found walking moodily down a city street looking for his next bit of inspiration. Other works can be in Volume Four, Issue 3 of Rigorous Magazine, as well as the Fall 2020 issue of Short Vine Journal. 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. Shedding is available on December 31, 2022 as a paperback (112p.; 978-1-956692-46-4), e-book, and audiobook. Retailers and libraries can order copies through Ingram.  Womenscape is a collection of twelve stories, each a life-changing moment in a woman’s life. These women, who range from five to ninety-five, navigate through the varied landscapes of their lives with surprising results. There are disappointments and triumphs, tears and laughter, and many unexpected outcomes along the way.
In the first story, “In the Beginning”, Lily Ann, a spoiled five-year-old who relies on her beauty to get her way, confronts an unexpected challenger on her first day of kindergarten. In “Resurrection”, Mary O’Hara Levin, recently widowed. wanders the country, not knowing what she is looking for until she gets off the bus in a small town in Tennessee. In “Venus Rising”, Venus Goldfarb, an outcast, is forced to cast herself out into a world she views as unwelcoming and threatening. Ill equipped and afraid to navigate this world, she finds sanctuary and purpose in an unexpected place. These are three of the twelve women whose stories are told in this collection. Change can be daunting. Life can be surprising. This collection of short stories explores some of the challenges women of varying ages face. Most are successful; some are not, but they all learn something about themselves that changes their lives forever. About Susan Helene Living for many years on the East Coast, Susan Helene moved to California, and earned a master’s degree in mathematics and Computer Science, while raising her two daughters and a quartet of dogs. Having taught in many educational environments, she joined the faculty at Fullerton College to become the first and only woman Computer Science Department Coordinator for over twenty years. When not enjoying time spent with her family: her husband, her two daughters and four dogs of various size and questionable pedigree, she studied ceramics, where she learned the varied processes of wheel throwing, sculpting, and tile making. The exactitude of computer programming and the attention to process and detail in her chosen field of art helped hone her skills of observation. It was after presenting “Her Cup Runneth Over” to a writer’s workshop, that she felt encouraged to explore writing more seriously. Her short story, “The Sixty-First Day”, was accepted for the eighth edition of Montana Mouthful, October 2020 issue. She is also the proud recipient of a Second Place Prize in the High Desert Branch- California Writers Club pandemic anthology contest. Her story, “The Rose”, was published in their anthology: Survival: Tales of Pandemic, published in 2020. 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. WOMENSCAPE: Selected Stories of Eclectic Women is available on December 20, 2022 as a paperback (132p.; 978-1-956692-45-7), e-book, and audiobook. Retailers and libraries can order copies through Ingram.  PORTLAND, OR; December 13, 2022--The Bunker Book is a work of poetry by Anne Babson that revisits medieval plague tales in an era of American pandemic and French Resistance literature in a divided nation. Set in New Orleans and other cosmopolitan destinations, it presents the problems of Kyiv, of the Second World War, and all fights against fascism as a way of talking about America today. This poetry collection makes the new cosmopolitan South confront the ghosts of the old problematic South and exorcise them. While it occasionally echoes sentiments present in Atwood’s work, it offers hope to the reader despite all. Focused on the life of a woman who hides herself and the books banned in an oppressive society in a bunker, her library comes to life and speaks to her in the voices of figures like Machiavelli, the Wife of Bath, Marlene Dietrich, Margery Kempe, Rhett Butler, Saint Thomas Moore, and Christine de Pisan. It contemplates the cloistered life of pandemic and religious medieval women mystics in one idiom. It imagines the underground resistance of Paris during the Nazi occupation reenacted in our times in an American setting.Works as old as Beowulf find themselves enacted on the banks of the Mississippi, and poems as present-tense as the latest headlines about the war in Ukraine also find a home on Tchoupitoulas Street in New Orleans.
The Bunker Book calls the reader to hope despite reasons to despair, to overcome fear and to fight the forces that would silence artists and political dissidents everywhere. Anyone feeling frustrated with our times might take solace and encouragement from these defiant and hopeful words. ADVANCE PRAISE FOR ANNE BABSON "Anne Babson’s poems are bunkered under the intersection of learning and lived knowledge, in depths where history and myth share roots and where blood and milk share a source. Bookish and puckish, formal and transformative, Babson’s poems range through time and space while always returning to (or do they ever leave?) the fever-dreamscape of her New Orleans. Along the way, she counters patriarchy’s fatal predations with a restorative feminism that calls us to action. Spend some time in this bunker and you’ll emerge, with Babson’s saints, ready to dance and to fight."–Brad Richard, author of Parasite Kingdom and Motion Studies "What do you do when the world closes in on all sides? If you’re Anne Babson, you sustain yourself in a fortress of books and let your mind wander where it may. Babson’s The Bunker Book is a delightful feast of linguistic wit and play. In these poems you will party with Gertrude Stein in PJs, go bar-hopping with the Vampire Lestat--and that’s on a slow night! Of all the writers who entered lockdown with optimistic plans for their work, only Anne Babson could emerge from her bunker with such a brainy, brash, gut-busting, brouhaha of a book. Do yourself a favor and dive in."–Alison Pelegrin, author of Our Lady of Bewilderment "Anne Babson's The Bunker Book knows no boundaries. Shifting through place and time, the poems commune with a variety of fictional and historical women, each living in their own metaphorical bunkers. From The Wife of Bath to Sylvia Plath to Heather Lewis, every encounter is dark, playful, hallucinatory, revelatory. Like Ilya Kaminsky's Deaf Republic, this book explicates a civilization. Poetry lovers should rush to these pages."–Maurice Carlos Ruffin "Some books read as if they were cities: the reader is walking its neighborhoods, experiencing the music and bustle of each street, each poem. Like New Orleans itself, Anne Babson’s The Bunker Book is a glorious hodge-podge of voices and influence. As if walking Bourbon Street, we hear German, Spanish, and French co-mingling as Psalms sidle into Elvis, Laura Ingalls, and Mrs. Havisham; as free verse follows villanelle, ghazal, and blank verse; as churches are built beside bar. And as it does, history’s shadow stretches into the contemporary. These are poems of witness, and more importantly in these troubled times, poems of hope. The Bunker Book presents “a city safe for women built on heroic/couplets,” and Anne Babson is quite the architect."–Gerry LaFemina, author of Baby Steps for Doomsday Prepping ABOUT ANNE BABSON Anne Babson’s first collection The White Trash Pantheon won the Colby H. Kullman prize from the Southern Writers Southern Writing Conference in Oxford, Mississippi. Her second collection, Polite Occasions, was published by Unsolicited Press, and her third collection, Messiah, was published by Saint Julian Press. She wrote the libretto for the opera Lotus Lives, which has been performed in New York, Boston, and Montreal, and it is set to be released to video in coming months. She is the author of four chapbooks– Uppity Poems, Dictation, Poems Under Surveillance, and Dolly Shot. She has been anthologized in the United States and in England, most recently in the notable collection Nasty Women Poets: an Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse released in 2017. Her work has appeared in literary journals on five continents and has won numerous editorial awards. Her play about gun culture in the South, Reenactment, was published in 2019. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize four times. She has received residency grants from Yaddo and Vermont Studio Center. She writes lyrics for a variety of musical projects, most recently a blues album. She teaches writing and literature at Southeastern Louisiana University. She is the president of the Women’s National Book Association of New Orleans. 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. THE BUNKER BOOK is available on December 13, 2022 as a paperback (142p.; 978-1-956692-44-0), e-book, and audiobook (forthcoming). Retailers and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is available for speaking engagements.  PORTLAND, OR; December 6, 2022 -- So much happens in the backbeat. In music, the backbeat is a place for discovery, improvisation, and connection. What happens in the backbeat of human experience—a rich life beyond our initial surfaces? What do we discover and create when we attend to this space? What happens when we examine it and open it to others? Backbeat Ocean invites the reader to join a poetic dive and subsequent rise through this unspoken space as through the five oceanic zones. The journey begins in the Sunlight Zone and progresses through each zone until we confront darkness in a descent to the Hadal Zone. An alchemical turn guides the ascent back through the zones arriving in the Sunlight Zone once again, having changed from the journey. Collectively, these poems intersect self-discovery, relationships, nature, trauma, and daily life in a tensive, philosophical, and vulnerable journey. They discover connection through the power of plunging into an existential tapestry—embracing it all, putting it into place, and recognizing the depth that exists in being human. Individually, each poem builds on the one before and guides the reader through a vast ocean. From simple moments that leave space open to structured escapades that capture chaos and larger systems, these pages seek authentic discovery on the path to meaning. Backbeat Ocean integrates vulnerability, confusion, contemplation, and strength. The collection speaks to the complexity and richness of the life that exists around and inside us, in the backbeat.
About Janette Kennedy Janette Kennedy, MAEd, MFA regularly wrangles dreams, family, and words. Her poetry has appeared at Mothers Always Write, on the Tiferet Journal community blog, and on the sidewalk of her hometown as a part of the 2021 World Travels Sidewalk Poetry Contest. Although she has been known to sling data and pivot tables with the best, she is fascinated by the power of art and nurturing creativity. She has taught diverse students of all ages for over 15 years, and currently teaches undergraduate composition and literature. Discover more at janettekennedy.com About Unsolicited Press Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is 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. BACKBEAT OCEAN is available on December 6, 2022, as a paperback (156 p.; 978-1-956692-42-6) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through Ingram. The author is open to speaking with the media, holding readings, and engaging in other author opportunities. Tyler James Russell's WHEN FIRE SPLITS THE SKY is an Apocalyptic, Psychological Road-Trip Thriller11/22/2022
 PORTLAND, OR; November 22, 2022 -- Following Ben’s weekend hunting trip outside Juneau, his wife Maranda—a trauma survivor with multiple personalities—makes a discovery that looks like it will finally put their limping, less-than-a-year marriage out of its misery. But in the morning, when a cataclysmic blast throws the world into chaos, Ben and Maranda find themselves stuck in a car, heading north to Anchorage, on a seemingly hopeless quest to reunite with a missing family member before it’s too late.
Driving for days through the fiery devastation, Ben and Maranda’s marital and personal trauma plays out against what might be a global—or even cosmic—catastrophe. All the while, they are pursued by two men with dark ties to Maranda’s past. To reach Anchorage, Ben and Maranda will be forced to confront their blackest secrets as they decide what any relationship might be worth at the end of the world. Told in alternating chapters from Ben and Maranda’s perspectives, When Fire Splits the Sky is an apocalyptic, psychological, road-trip thriller about the limits of our capacity to endure, change, and survive. Praise for Tyler James Russell Intense, propulsive, full of dark energy, Tyler Russell’s novel envisions the end of the world through the yearnings of two characters barely clinging to what makes them human. Its darkness is irradiated by a sharp wit, psychological depth, and lyricism unusual in a thriller barreling this quickly across the pages. Fans of Palahniuk’s Fight Club, Flynn’s Gone Girl or McCarthy’s The Road will savor these nonstop pyrotechnics. Robert Rosenberg, author of This is Not Civilization and Isles of the Blind A spellbinding thriller about the shattering impact of human trafficking, set in a devastated and dangerous apocalyptic world, Tyler James Russell’s brilliant exploration of how the human mind copes with extreme trauma grabbed me on page one and never let me go. Russell’s creative language and short riveting chapters kept me glued to the page, desperate to know what would happen, yet I didn’t want this remarkable, terrifying story to end. When Fire Splits the Sky is the most riveting, original book I’ve read in ages. Laura Davis, author of The Courage to Heal and The Burning Light of Two Stars This is a welcome reprieve from the simplistic caricatures about someone with multiple personalities that have become common today. No serial killer. No crazy person. Just a look at the alters that fill out the person Ben calls his wife. When Fire Splits the Sky helps us see the humanity and struggles of both Ben and Maranda (et al), as they fight to come to terms with their personal and relational trauma, searching for a path toward mutual healing. Sam Ruck, author of the Loving My DID Girl(s) blog About Tyler James Russell Tyler James Russell is the author of To Drown a Man (2020), a poetry collection, also from Unsolicited Press. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife Cat and their children. His other work has been nominated for the Best of the Net and Rhysling Awards, and has appeared or is forthcoming in F(r)iction, 365 Tomorrows, and Sepia, among others. When Fire Splits the Sky is his first novel. 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. When Fire Splits the Sky is available on November 22, 2022 as a paperback (282 p.; 978-1-956692-41-9) and e-book (all major retailers). Retailers, schools, and libraries can order copies through 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 [email protected] For artist interviews, readings, and podcasts: Tyler James Russell |
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