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Great giveaway!

We have a copy of Deadheading and Other Stories by by Beth Gilstrap to give away!

To win, sign up for our Free Newsletter on the right-hand side of the site and enter via the newsletter. Winner will be chosen by the end of October from subscribers who enter via the newsletter. Good luck!

Interview with Paulette Stout

The author of Love, Only Better talks about her book, about the climax, about why now is the right time for this book and these conversations, her characters, the importance of sexual gratification, and lots more.

Great new giveaway

We have a copy of Love, Only Better by Paulette Stout to give away!

To win, sign up for our Free Newsletter on the right-hand side of the site and enter via the newsletter. Winner will be chosen by the end of September from subscribers who enter via the newsletter. Good luck!

A review of Admit This to No One by Leslie Pietrzyk

What really unifies this collection is all the characters who are in denial and/or honestly trying to suss out who they really are, how they fit into their bureaucracies, their families, the society in general, their authentic selves. It’s a very contemporary collection, too, with references to January 6 and a character named “The Dealmaker” who is plainly Donald Trump.

A review of A Net to Catch My Body in Its Weaving by Katie Farris

Farris both hides behind a mask and doesn’t. As any poetry creates a mask that both conceals and reveals, she gives readers poetic glimpses behind her mask with tight, lyrical lines. Farris controls the lens that we will look through to get to know her poetry and her personal medical journey. She gives readers an opportunity to see but not dwell upon the upheaval thrust on her life by interactions with medical staff, her husband, and the public.

A review of The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznki

While it can be imprecise to learn history from a novel, The Bohemians describes a time and place and its characters so vividly that it surely enhances what one might learn from the straight historical texts. This is a fine, worthy book with its defined and canny captures of Lange, Lee, Dixon and others, and an engaging, rewarding read.

An Appreciation of Zora Neale Hurston and Their Eyes Were Watching God

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston, an appreciator of different kinds of language and literature, a modernist who remembered tradition, describes Janie Crawford’s stifling life and surprising growth with language that is, as needed, confiding, folksy, general, poetic, philosophical, or startlingly specific. 

A review of Sparring Partners by Charles Rammelkamp

Sparring Partners is only as much about boxing as Moby-Dick is about whaling.  Like any true work of art, it’s about life, its fleeting glory, its many sadnesses, its long decline, and finally its inevitable disappearance.  In the end it’s about accepting that we all fall and break apart, and as such, it’s a terrific read, well worth your time.

A review of Open Secrets: The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Your Book

Tupelo is the perfect press to release a book like this. Founded in 2001, their twenty years of knowledge shines through, as does a pragmatism that I’m afraid could be lost if one of the big five publishers attempted to publisher a similar book. It’s apparent that Tupelo has a history of what they refer to on their website’s call for submissions as “energetic publicity and promotion.” That energy is contained in the dense sixty-some pages of Open Secrets.